The Cost of Bravery
by YourGuardianAngel08
Summary: Peter is badly injured while trying to be a Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and when he can't get ahold of anyone to help, he decides to swing home. Unfortunately, Queens to the Compound is not a short trip so when he finally makes it back, that time was the least of his worries. Sadly, now it's only the beginning for Tony. Irondad/Spideyson; whump!Peter
1. Chapter 1

**So I have a problem, I'm learning that now but the first step is admitting it...**

**So this little snippet of a story struck me when I was finishing my last long story and so I wrote a bit of it and then tried to put it away. But, as story ideas usually do, it kept tugging at my mind so I figured that I should get it written so I can work on stuff I actually need to be working on because if I don't, I'm just going to end up distracted from other things.**

**Just a warning, this is shameless Peter whump and worried Tony, partially because its fun to me to write pieces like this but mostly because I'm so not over Endgame and the Far From Home trailers keep coming out, driving home just how not over Endgame I am.**

**Also, just a quick author's note, this story takes place after "Pain is Only Temporary". You don't need to read that in order for this to make sense but there are a few things you need to know from that: Tony has basically adopted Peter, so its a father/son relationship and they acknowledge that freely; Tony and Pepper had a little boy (I wrote him in before I saw Endgame so it's a little boy), named Morgan; Peter got in to MIT and it's his senior year of high school. I think that's about it. **

**One more selfish side note, I don't know if anyone who commented on my last story will read this one but if you do, thank you so much for commenting on the last chapter! I went ahead and said my normal individual thank yous below ;)**

**So without further ado,**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

By all accounts, Peter had been having a good night. He was glad to be out again as Spider-Man after he had taken a few weeks off for finals. He had been getting itchy to be back out in the city and it didn't help that for the whole two weeks, his dad repeatedly told him not to worry too much about his tests, that he had already gotten in to college. And once Tony Stark starts bragging about where you're going, it's not like admissions can really pull your acceptance even if you fail all your finals. Still, he was him and he wanted to make sure to end the year on a high note so he had diligently studied most of his subjects and had managed to do pretty well on all his tests. MIT had no reason to pull his acceptance now.

So he was free from high school and summer had officially started. In a few weeks he, Ned, MJ, and Betty were going on a senior trip to Europe so he was pretty excited about that, even though he still felt a little guilty about the way he had gotten the trip. It had been a graduation present from Tony, complete with a pre-paid itinerary and tickets for his friends, all of which happened to be non-refundable. Something his dad knew he couldn't refuse.

He had felt guilty for a few days, unsure how to accept the expensive gift before he talked to Tony about it. He still felt spoiled but he realized Tony had wanted to do something nice for him. And then he told him it was mandatory for all seniors to take trips to "discover who they are" or something like that. But then he had told Peter about what he had done on his senior trip and Peter couldn't help but think that the whole "discovering yourself" thing was really just code for get drunk and do dumb stuff. Not that Peter could ever really do anything that dumb, he had a tracker in everything he owned. Still it didn't matter, Tony had won and they were leaving for Europe in a few weeks. Then it would be back to working on Avengers stuff and planning for college for the rest of the summer.

All in all, Peter was excited.

Plus, it was really nice outside and as he had managed to stop a few small crimes already.

* * *

After he had stopped a purse snatching and helped a lost couple find MOMA, he figured it was time for some food.

He perched on a rooftop overlooking the sunset and enjoying the serenity that came with sitting up high as he let his mind wander to his plans for the rest of the night. Maybe he could go to the Compound for the night? May was working a late shift at the hospital and he would just be home by himself if he went to the apartment plus he didn't have school tomorrow since seniors were done and graduation was next week so maybe he could hang out with the rest of his family. It took a decent amount of time for him to swing there but really, that was okay. It was a nice night. Plus, if he swung fast enough, maybe he could break his record. Then he groaned when he realized that if he had Iron Spider, he would definitely be able to beat it but he was testing out one of his own suits. It was lighter than most of the suits his dad designed, so he was faster in it but at the same time, it didn't have the legs or any of the propulsive stuff his heavier suits had. He dropped his shoulders with a sigh as he realized he might not break the record tonight. But then he smirked to himself, he could still try.

* * *

It was getting close to eleven when Peter decided that maybe it was time for him to head in. If he headed to the Compound now, someone might still be up. Then he heard a scream and a crash a block or so over. Turning in that direction, he quickly asked, "Karen, what was that?"

"I'm not sure, Peter. Would you like to check it out?"

How could he say no? That was definitely a scream, so he quickly answered, "Yah of course, can you pinpoint where it came from?"

Karen was quiet for a moment before a guiding line appeared on his HUD. He couldn't help but smile and call out, "Sweet, thanks!" Then he took off in the direction she had calculated.

He crawled up to the edge of the building, careful to get a look at what was going on before he just showed up. What he saw made his heart jump into his throat. There was a small family clustered together, their backs to the alley wall while four men advanced on them. Peter could make out two kids hiding behind their parents legs, clutching tight to their pants and crying. This was not allowed to get any worse. Decision made, Peter jumped off the building ledge and dropped between the family and the men threatening them. Holding his hands out in front of him, he analyzed exactly what he would need now that he was on the ground and he talked to cover it, "Woo woo…hey guys, I don't think you really want to do this. How about we all just go our separate ways and pretend this didn't happen?" He knew what the answer would be but he was trying to keep the attention on him.

One of the men growled at him and then barked his answer, "I think we'll pass on that Spider-Man, see we were here first so we're gonna just go ahead and finish what we started."

"If you say so," Peter glanced back over his shoulder for a second at the family, making sure he knew exactly where they were and how much space he had to work with. Then he rushed forward. Immediately, he webbed up one of the guys, dropping him quickly before he turned to the other three. Two more went down just as easily and then he heard yelling from behind him.

Thinking there had been another threat he, for some reason, hadn't seen, he turned in time to see one of the little kids running toward the street, his back pressed along the alley wall. He must have wiggled free from his mom's arms. Peter's attention was torn for just a moment but it gave the fourth guy a chance to cut the webs on the hands of two of his friends before he lunged at Peter.

Peter's spidey senses tingled and he was forced to turn away from the little boy as he managed to get a forearm up to block the knife, the fabric doing its job and keeping the blade from slicing through. But the other two had closed in as well. One stabbed low, catching the suit in just the right place to drive his blade up to the handle in Peter's side before he dragged it across Peter's stomach and pulled it free. Peter groaned and bent momentarily against the tearing agony as the pain made him stumble.

The third guy tried to take advantage of the distracted Spider-Man and stabbed out with his blade too. Peter ducked just out of the knife's path and the blade glanced off the top of his shoulder. He punched out blindly and caught one of the men in the should. The man impacted the wall behind him and was pinned there by a web. One of two left dove forward again and caught Peter higher on his chest, the blade biting through his suit's fabric, although it wasn't nearly as bad. Peter shoved him away. As the man stumbled and fell, Peter fired a web and he, too, was out of the fight.

That just left one more guy.

Peter's stomach was burning and the pain was starting to make his eyes water. This needed to end, so he quickly kicked the guy back, careful to pull his kick so he didn't crush the man's chest, before he webbed him where he tumbled back on his butt.

Then as quickly as it had begun, everything stopped. The quiet, comfortable night blanketed the alley again and the soft sounds of cars passing on the street was only broken by the occasional honk of a horn, Peter's heavy breathing, and quiet sobbing.

Needing to take stock of the situation, Peter partially turned and saw the family huddled in a different spot. Apparently they had caught the little boy and all four of them were clinging tightly to each other, pressed into the wall partially hidden behind a few boxes. Peter pressed his hand to the burning wound on his stomach and took a second to calm his breathing before he turned to fully face the family. His voice wavered a bit when he addressed them but he felt like he hid the pain pretty well as he kept his tone mostly even, "I think you should probably leave now. I'll make sure the police get here. You'll have to go talk to them tomorrow but I think it'll be okay if you go home tonight."

There was no immediate response from the family but the mother stood up and stepped forward, her hands held out in front of her like she was working with a scared animal. Her gaze was fixed on his side and her kind voice wobbled as she spoke, "Spider-Man, I think you need to get that looked at."

Peter smiled at her concern and pressed his hand a little harder to his side, taking a step back to make sure she didn't touch him, before he assured her, "I'll be alright. Can't just go to the hospital like everyone else." He shrugged halfheartedly before he continued, "I've got backup though, don't worry. But you should get going." Then the pain spiked again and he hunched a bit to cover it before he realized how right she was, he really needed help. Hurriedly calling out, "Have a good night!" Peter fired a web to one of the buildings and climbed onto the roof, out of sight. Once he was hidden, he gave in to the pain and weakly asked, "Call…dad…please, Karen?" Peter pressed hard on the wound on his side as he tried to stay on his wavering feet. The sound of grinding gravel was excruciatingly loud but he couldn't keep from shifting because he couldn't find his balance. Then he forced himself to focus on Karen's voice when she kept talking beyond her confirmation.

"Of course, Peter." While the call rang, Karen's quiet voice cut through the other sounds that were becoming increasingly obnoxious, "Peter, I think you need to sit down. You are losing blood at too quick a rate, I would suggest using a compression web."

"Oh, tha…that'sa good idea…" Peter commented before he fell back on his butt with a grunt. Taking a second to remember what he was doing, he lifted his arm and awkwardly pointed it at his side, thankful that Karen could choose the settings for him. The web released and as soon as it hit his side it constricted tight to close up the wound. He fired two more just to be sure and winced as they also tightened, pulling the torn flesh together and stemming the bleeding. Job done, Peter fell onto his back and breathed as deeply as he could, trying to calm his racing heart. He was okay, he could do this. Then he realized the call was still ringing. That was weird. Tony never ignored his calls, especially not when he was out on patrol. Peter distinctly knew that Tony had answered during Board of Directors meetings multiple times, much to Pepper's chagrin. A voice in his head told him what that could mean but he refused to acknowledge it, nothing was wrong, Tony just hadn't hear his phone. "Karen…can you…call my dad again?" Peter closed his eyes while he waited for the call to connect and he felt himself finding a bit more of an equilibrium. The webs were working, he was okay.

"Peter, I think there might be something wrong with Mr. Stark's phone. He is not answering."

Immediately, that sinister voice got louder. If his dad wasn't answering it meant something terrible had to be happening and he needed to get to the Compound. His panic spiked and he tried again, "Karen, try the Compound and FRIDAY, keep calling until you get through."

"I cannot do that Peter. Remember, the communications are down until early this morning."

"Dammit." He knew that, he had helped Tony write the coding for the new software. It was going to be the only time the Compound would go dark because the program took time to reset all the systems. It had been the reason Tony had tried to talk Peter out of patrolling tonight and it had to be why Tony wasn't answering. Most of his communications were tied into FRIDAY and if she couldn't get the calls, he wasn't going to answer. And chances were he didn't have his phone on him since it was after Morgan's bedtime.

With that knowledge, Peter's paranoia eased, his family wasn't in danger, they just were back in the twentieth century. But that still left him in a precarious position. He still needed help. Peter rolled through his choices. The Compound was pretty far away but there was no one at his apartment and his side was really starting to hurt again. It was the pain that propelled him on, spiking the fear that had been roiling under the surface. He would just have to risk it. He stood slowly and tested his balance, finding it a little easier to stand upright now that the blood was not freely flowing. He poked at the compression webs just to make sure they were tight. The web fluid he used for medical webs was stronger and lasted longer than most of his other webbing, that had been Tony's idea. He had a good forty-ish minutes before it wore away. He could make it. Steeling himself, Peter took a deep breath and a running leap off the building, he would just have to get himself home, his dad could help him from there.

He just wanted to go home.

* * *

There was a loud thump on their balcony and both Pepper and Tony sat up. It was Tony who spoke in a rushed whisper, "FRIDAY, what the hell was that?" They had just gotten the baby down and he was selfishly terrified that anything was going to wake him back up.

"Boss, Peter is…" But the AI wasn't able to finish her statement as the doors opened and Peter stumbled into the room, his hand pressed to his side. Pain was clear in his voice when he begged, "Dad…help…"

Tony tore out of bed. He was at Peter's side in an instant, slipping under the hand his son had clutched to his side, and replacing it with his own as Peter stumbled forward. It didn't take Tony long before he started talking, "It's alright, I gotcha. You're okay." Tony tipped his hand away from the wound before he cursed under his breath and pressed a little harder. That was when he realized Peter was talking.

"Da…dad, I have ta sit…need ta sit…" His voice was breathy, like he had just run an all out sprint for as long as he could.

"Okay, Pete…okay…I gotcha…come on…" He steered Peter toward the bed. But Peter didn't quite make it and Tony was forced to take his son's weight when he collapsed a few feet away. Tony levered him onto the mattress as soon as he could before he carefully peeled back the hand he had pressed hard against Peter's side and swore again as the jagged tear that had nearly opened his son's abdomen stared back at him. Tony shifted his hand to cover more of the wound and forced himself to take a deep breath. His vision fixated on Peter, taking in every horrible piece of what was happening. He felt the sickening pulse of sluggish, sticky blood under his hand, heard the panicked gasps Peter was taking, watched the frantic way Peter was looking for ways to escape the pain. Tony needed to handle this. He ran his free hand through Peter's hair just once before he left it lay on Peter's cheek, giving him something else to focus on. Then he called up to the ceiling, "FRIDAY, tell whoever is on call tonight that we need an emergency team now, bypass all normal protocols. And have Karen keep them informed." Then he looked toward Pepper and, taking in the fear in her eyes, he added, "Can you take Morgan into the other room?"

"Got it boss."

Tony watched as Pepper nodded before she scrambled out of bed and bundled the sleeping baby out of the room. He couldn't help but wince as Morgan's unhappy cries echoed out the door and into the living room. Still, he couldn't pay attention to that right now. He turned his attention back to Peter, his voice was compassionate but demanding, "Pete, I need you to look at me." He waited until Peter forced his eyes to meet his. Then he continued talking, "That's it, Pete." Tony soothed, giving him a smile, "'m right here, 'm not going anywhere. I'm gonna stay with you until the med team gets here so you just hold on alright. Just hold on." Tony could hear the beginning of begging building in the back of his throat but he couldn't show Peter that fear. Couldn't focus on the pulsing blood that still hadn't stopped or the complete lack of help he could give without any of his equipment.

Peter saw the fear in his dad's eyes and it made him sad. He didn't want to scare Tony, he had tried not to but now that's all he was doing. Then his dad pressed down harder on the wound and reflexively Peter whimpered and ground out, "It hurts, dad." But a small part of his mind realized that it didn't hurt nearly as much as it had before. It had gone from a searing agony to more of a dull ache, even when Tony pressed on it.

Tony could hear the thickness of his son's voice as the tears built in his eyes. Tony felt his own tears threatening, "I know, Peter. I know." He leaned down, pressed a kiss to his forehead, and combed his hand back through his son's hair, regaining eye contact, "But you're strong and you're going to keep fighting and we're going to get you on some good pain meds."

Peter tried to listen, he really did but it felt kind of like he was starting to float away. Kind of like he had when Thanos had snapped but this wasn't as scary as that had been. This just kind of felt like going to sleep. Everything below his stomach just kind of…was…it didn't hurt anymore. It actually felt nice. But the longer he floated, the colder he started to get; it wasn't nice anymore and for as much focus as he was trying to give his dad, he could feel his eyes wandering away but he couldn't tell what they were wandering to. Then his body tried to make up for the coldness and he started to shiver. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Peter realized that the motion should probably hurt too but it really didn't. It did force his wandering attention back to the one person who could probably make him warm again and he whispered, "'m cold." Message delivered, Peter let his eyes wander blankly to where they were before.

That singular idea caused fear to shoot through Tony's mind, that was not a good thing. He grabbed ahold of the blankets, tearing them up from the corners of the bed and wrapping them tightly around his shivering son. Then he forced the fear down, "Is that better, Pete?" He couldn't help but press down a little harder on the wound under his hand as he used his other hand to rub his arm up and down the blanket, trying to warm him up even a little more. Peter whimpered again but didn't say anything else. "I know, Pete. I'm sorry. Please just keep fighting." But then Tony lost his gaze. He cursed quietly and called, "FRIDAY, where are they?"

"They're on their way, boss. About three more minutes."

Tony cursed again and continued rubbing Peter's arms while pressing just a little harder on the wound on his side. Then Tony heard a strange gurgling sound followed by a choked sob and he couldn't help but ask, "Pete? What is it? What's wrong?" When his son didn't answer, fear solidified in his throat and he leaned farther over Peter so he could see his face under the heavy covers. Unconsciously, Tony knew his son wasn't breathing and if in confirmation of that, Tony realized that the heaving breaths Peter had been taking had stilled under his hand. He panicked, his voice rising as the reality set in, "Pete? Pete, come on, kid, you gotta answer me." Tony leaned down over his mouth, praying that he was just missing something. But when there was no puff of breath on his cheek, Tony lost the little control he had and he started speaking quickly, demanding, "No, no, Peter come on, breathe! You have to breathe!" Without taking his eyes off his son, Tony screamed, "Pepper! Help!" He turned back to Peter as he waited, "Peter please, I need you to take a breath. You have to breathe. You can't leave…I can't…"

Pepper heard Tony's panicked yell and bolted into their room. She dropped down next to his side, her tone hurried when she asked, "What do you need me to do?"

"He's not breathing." Tony answered with urgency. He looked up at her, determination warring with desperation in his eyes before he ground out, "You have to do something Pepper. Right now."

Without comment, Pepper shifted a bit before she leaned forward and started rescue breathing. Carefully counting the timing between the breaths and ensuring that Peter's chest rose and fell with the effort. She couldn't help but whisper, "Come on Peter, come on." On a whim, she pressed her fingers into the side of Peter's throat and when she didn't feel the pressure of a heartbeat, she pressed a little harder. Surely Tony would have noticed that. But when still no pulse pressed back, Pepper realized it was worse than Tony thought and that instance of fear threatened to strangle her as she forced the information passed her closing throat, "Tony, it's not just his breathing…he…he doesn't have a pulse. His heart's not beating."

"What?" Tony's world screeched to a halt for an agonizing few heartbeats as he saw the wild fear in Pepper's face. But they were heartbeats his son didn't have. He swallowed the utter panic and he made a decision, snapping, "We need to get him on the floor. Now." He dug into the comforter, roughly snatching up Peter's limp arms as he attempted to tip his son off the bed. He ordered, "Pepper, grab his legs, we have to get him lying flat."

It only took them a handful of seconds to maneuver him off the bed and Tony handed a shirt over to Pepper and instructed, "Press that to his side as hard as you can, that wound is deep and we have to keep him from losing any more blood." Then he started compressions. He tried to imagine it was the dummy he had practiced on but as _Peter's_ ribs cracked under the pressure, as his chest rhythmically collapsed under Tony's desperate attempts to keep his heart beating, he realized he couldn't do that. As he frantically forced the blood to continue to circulate, Tony reminded himself Peter needed to breath too. He tipped Peter's head back, pinched his nose, and breathed deeply. Once. Twice. And then he started the process over, straightening his arms and compressing Peter's unresponsive chest. Tony didn't realize that in between breaths, he was begging.

Pepper's eyes welled up as she watched in dismay as Tony repeatedly slammed the flats of his hands down into Peter's chest. The muffled snap and pop of bone was horrifying but precious little was worse than watching Tony beg. She couldn't help but wrap one of her hands around Peter's limp wrist and press her fingers into the pulse point under his thumb. She felt the heartbeat pulse half a moment behind Tony's frantic motions but when he stopped to breathe, Pepper felt her tears fall as the beats stopped too. For a moment, she couldn't help the fleeting thought that she would lose Tony if Peter died. But then a pulse started again as Tony slammed his hands back into Peter's chest, the rhythm unrelentingly steady. Her tears started to fall unabated as Tony begged Peter to come back to him, to wake up.

Tony only had to do a few rounds before the pounding feet of the med team was audible in their living room. Morgan's wailing cry echoed their approach. Then the door behind them was thrown open and a trained team with a gurney came in. Rationally, Tony knew he should move away from Peter but as he continued the compressions unabated, he also realized he could not physically handle losing even this horrible connection to his son. Instead, the medics made the decision, one of them physically pulling Tony out of the way without a second glance. Pepper caught him as he fell back, everyone's attention, rightfully, on Peter.

Tony fell back as he watched them take over, one of the medics continuing Tony's compressions while still others yelled random acronyms, and the soft whine of a defibrillator charged in the background. He could feel his own heart constricting as he watched them fight to bring Peter back. They pulled and cut his suit, sliding it down enough to put the pads on his skin, allowing the terrible sound of a flatline to join the discord of the room.

While one group focused on getting Peter's heart beating, the other was working on the shredded tear on his abdomen. All sat back though when the machine called its readiness and Tony watched with bated breath as the charge was released. Peter's back arched in response to the electrical charge and there was a brief pause in the flurry of activity before one of the medics close to Peter's head, the one bagging, called for another attempt. Tony felt his lungs start to burn as he held his breath, waiting for Peter to breathe. Only to watch, appalled as one of the medics leaned forward, his arms straight lines as he methodically pressed down hard on Peter's chest, while the machine whined back up to full power. Tony's own chest tightened incrementally the longer the blaring flatline sharply cut through everything else and reminded Tony his son was dead.

Again.

As the machine signaled its second charge, they all were called off a moment before the electricity discharged. Again Peter's back arched, his limp limbs twitching just a half a second behind as his back struck the unrelenting floor. Still, there was no positive response from the med team. Tony felt Pepper's hand on his shoulder, her worried voice mixing in with the cacophony but he couldn't pick out what she was saying. He could feel his vision greying at the edges as he tried to breathe but he couldn't get air into his lungs. Twice more, they forced electricity through Peter before his body finally responded. Before his heart struggled into a slow, uneven rhythm, somewhere closer in the realm of normal, and the blaring sound finally stopped. A few moments after he heard the rhythm, Tony managed to suck in a ragged breath. He heard the medics announce Peter was back and as if it gave permission, the black spots that had been dancing in the corners of Tony's vision and narrowing his gaze took over as he slumped sideways. But it was only after they got Peter on a gurney that Tony's body gave in. He heard Pepper call his name as his shoulder connected with the floor before his head did the same. The last thing he saw were two medics coming toward him as the gurney was wheeled out of the room. Tony tried to wave the them off and in his head he was telling them to go with Peter, that he was fine but he was not sure how much of that actually got through because instead of doing what he said, they dropped to their knees in front of him. That was all Tony knew before he passed out.

* * *

**So there you have it! I told you, shameless Peter whump ****(and I guess Tony's emotions) ****:) But there you go, that's what happens when its summer time I guess.**

**Feel free to tell me what you think in the reviews!**

**Also because it was tradition in my other story, I want to make sure I give specific shout outs to my Pain is Only Temporary reviewers so thank you to: **

** \- the wonderful baby-kitsune9, Thank you so much for saying that, I'm really glad you liked it and thank you for commenting :)**

** \- the awesome JOJX, Thanks! It felt really good to finish it so I appreciate you saying that :)**

** \- the fantabulous Randomness47, Thanks so much and I know, it was one of those stories that kind of just kept rolling out but I'm glad at the way it turned out.**

** \- the amazing ****MayaTanner18, I'm so glad to hear that about the second showing! Thanks for saying that about my last story, I really appreciated it!**

** \- the superb Ancalime8301, I love happy endings and since the MCU seems intent on denying them to us, I'll write them for myself lol**

** \- the excellent JohnGilberyVampirehunter, I'm glad you liked the argument :) and thank you so much!**

** \- the lovely skydancer121, I'm so thankful to you because you did stick with it to the end, so I'm glad it was worth it! Keep being awesome!**

**I hope everyone has a wonderful day/night and stay creative!**

**-Lily**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone!**

**So I have another chapter for you my lovely readers. I had some trouble with this chapter for some reason, I'm not going to lie, I think it rewrote it four to five times but I'm happy with what I ended up with. I hope you enjoy it too.**

**Thank you to everyone who favorited/followed/reviewed the first chapter, that was a crazy number of people and I definitely appreciate it! I can never accurately expression how nice it feels to know that people enjoy something that you put time into creating. So thank you again. And I also want to make sure I give a shout out to ****my awesome reviewers so thank you to:**

** \- the fantabulous Bellatlas, There definitely is a chapter 2 :) I'm glad you liked the first chapter and I hope this one lives up to your expectations, thank you so much for reviewing!**

** \- the fantastic poohbear123, Thanks so much :)**

** \- the wonderful Guest, I wasn't able to find the location specifically but I did get a decent amount of miles too when I looked at it and I tried to allow for that in the explanations in this chapter. I just kind of wanted to get to the aftermath so I was going to use the other characters to fill in the blanks in the transport. I totally appreciate the critique though! I hope that (if you're still reading) this fills in some of the problems with the idea of Peter making it to the Compound completely on his own. And if it doesn't, feel free to let me know!**

** \- the incredible MayaTanner18, I'm so glad you do and you're so amazing because you totally comment and its awesome to read, thank you for that :) I'm hoping this chapter makes it up to your high expectations :) **

** \- the amazing HHaines, It definitely hurt to write too but I think I really needed to for whatever reason...anyway, I'm glad you like it and I hope you like this chapter!**

** \- the CharlieLittle, Hey! I'm glad you like my stories and the way I write, thank you for saying that :) you're totally amazing too! That 21 chapter one was definitely a bear to write, this one is a little easier -lol- and I'm definitely working on the updates for sure, so I hope this lives up to your expectations!**

** \- the excellent Proud Hollander, Thanks so much for saying that! I hope this update works for you!**

** \- the marvelous skydancer121, Thank you so much for being an amazing reviewer, you always write something and it makes me so happy to see your username :) Thank you for the kind words and I hope you like this chapter too!**

**Thank you again to all my amazing reviewers, favoriters, and followers, you guys are amazing and make this so much fun :)**

**So without further ado,**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Tony woke up to the soft sounds of Pepper's voice as she sang quietly to the little boy dozing in her lap. For a moment, he let himself listen, his eyes closed tight against the pain he knew would hit him when he finally came back to the world. But then the guilt settled in a tight knot in his stomach and his twilight calm only lasted for a moment more before the question he needed the answer to bubbled to the surface, spewing out before he had a chance to temper his demand, "Where's Peter?" He cursed his tactlessness when Pepper jumped slightly, it wasn't enough to wake the baby, but the absence of her song was another spike through Tony's aching chest.

Pepper knew what her husband's first question would be but she had hoped that he would at least be out long enough for the doctors to finish helping Peter. Instead she frowned internally as she leaned forward, gently laying her hand on his arm, her expression and voice sympathetic, "He's still in surgery, Tony. You've been out for a little more than an hour and the doctors said it would probably take at least two to patch him up."

Tony's face scrunched, his impatience clear in the motion but there wasn't much he could do about it. He was useless. He was useless and he hated it. There was also a small voice in the back of his head that had started as soon as he woke up. It was the same one that screamed at him every time something happened to someone he loved and he was too tired to squash its pessimistic concern, instead he gave it a voice, "What if he's not okay, Pepper? What happens then?"

"Tony…" Pepper trailed off, unsure of how exactly to address that. Then she looked down at the sleeping child in her arms before she explained, "You just have to know he will be because without that you're going to drive yourself crazy. And you can't do that right now. You passed out because forgot to breathe. That's not healthy, Tony. So until we know, you need to believe that he's going to be okay."

"And how am I supposed to do that, Pepper? He died on our bedroom floor." The growing anger in his voice caused Morgan to shift unhappily in his mother's arms.

"Keep your voice down." Pepper chastised, rocking Morgan a bit until he curled back up again. She couldn't keep the frightened bite out of her tone when she retorted, "I know what happened Tony, I was there." She let the truth hang in the air for a few moments before she continued, her voice significantly calmer, "But you can't think like that. We have the best people here, they'll help him. And _when_ he comes out he's going to need you to be strong, so you will be. It's that simple because you're a parent and it has to be." She squeezed his arm and then promised, "You've done everything you could until this point..."

Tony barreled passed the reasoning he had asked for, already latching on to the next thing she said and he disagreed completely, "I didn't though. There's no way I did everything I could because if I had, he wouldn't have shown up on our balcony, bleeding. I would have been there. I should have been there long before he had to try to get here."

Pepper narrowed her eyes at his guilt, she knew exactly what he was doing, and she tried to convince him otherwise, "Tony, you didn't know. And when you did find out, not doing enough would have meant you sat on the floor and waited until the med team showed up. Then you wouldn't have done enough. But you didn't, he's alive because you kept him alive as long as you had to." The conviction in her tone dared him to contradict her.

Tony didn't have a retort to that, his arms were sore for just that reason so it was hard to argue with the fact that he hadn't done anything once Peter had made it back but there was still an overwhelming need to find why he was responsible, how he had failed. He quickly sorted through the events of the night and then realized what was bugging him, asking, "Why didn't he call?"

Pepper cocked her head slightly as she tried to figure out where he was going with that question, asking in return, "What?"

"I should have been there. But I never got a phone call. He knew the communications were down, he should have called my phone. Why didn't he call me?" Tony's heartbroken voice rang through the quiet room.

But Pepper's voice was soft and soothing as she tried her best to reason with irrationality, "Tony I don't think he was thinking of anything other than getting back here. You know how easily he can get fixed on an idea and drive forward regardless of anything else, you're like that. And maybe he did try? Isn't it possible that the upgrades to the communications array kept his call from getting through? If that's the case, there wouldn't have been anything was more you could have done."

Tony didn't even know what to say to that possibility because if that was true, this was entirely his fault. He should have tried harder to keep Peter from going out knowing he couldn't easily get ahold of him. He'd been the one to design the update that needed the whole thing to be off-line to work. He'd been the one that had tied Peter's suit into FRIDAY, into the Compound, if that hadn't been the case, he might not have suffered on his own. Tony reflexively looked up before he ordered, "FRIDAY, talk to Karen, find out if Pete tried to call in after he was injured."

Pepper realized too late the implications of her question when she watched Tony's face fall even farther. She wished she could shove the words back into her mouth and forget she had even uttered them. But he didn't respond to her, just asked for more information. Something she sometimes wished he wasn't so quick to do. She tried to derail his train of thought, quickly adding, "Tony, Peter's an adult, he helped you work on that, he knew the situation and he went out anyway. This isn't your fault." But as soon as FRIDAY answered, Pepper knew he was too in his own head to listen to her.

It took a moment for FRIDAY to answer, "Peter tried to call your phone a few times but was unable to establish a connection. His solution was to come here since he knew no one would be able to help at any closer point."

Tony's eyes widened at the answer, "Oh god..." He sucked in a wavering breath as he tried to force himself to deal with the implications. Peter had called for help. And then the image of his phone sitting, forgotten, on the kitchen counter, flashed through his head. His mind started to spin. He sucked in another breath and held it this time for a few counts before forcing the air out through his nose. Still, his mind kept spinning. He tried again and again but the spinning kept increasing until eventually he was sucking in and heaving out the air before his lungs even had a chance to absorb any of the molecules.

He knew the old, acidic bite at the back of his throat. He knew what the ache in his idle hands meant. It was something he hadn't dealt with in a while but it had left such a distinct stain that he knew it immediately. He was panicking again, like he had earlier, and he wasn't able to do anything to avoid it. There wasn't a problem he could solve or a mission to complete, he just had to deal with what he had done. And he couldn't.

Tony knew he needed to calm down but at the same time, his mind told him that he deserved to panic over this. He was the reason his son almost died, he deserved the pain of not being able to breathe. He felt Pepper sit down next to him and from where he was hunched, he saw Morgan's huge, now awake, eyes watching him with concern. He felt Pepper's hand on his shoulders, then on his face, but he couldn't let himself take comfort in it, instead he shivered, and continued to press air into and out of his lungs way too fast. Still, he somehow found the air to squeeze out, "He…tried…dammit Pepper…he tried to call me…oh god…." He scrubbed his shaking hand over his face. He could hear Pepper talking but he couldn't make it out, the blood pounding through his ears was too loud and instead he just continued to talk, trying to beat back the sound, "Iz m…y fault…iz all my fa…fault. I did this." But as he tried to take in another breath to keep talking, he realized with delayed panic that his lungs had frozen. He gasped but there was no inflow of air and he had just pressed everything he had left out. Those nasty little black spots started to show up in his vision again and everything around him was narrowing down to small pinpricks populated by those increasingly large black spots.

Then Morgan started to cry.

That sound pierced through the pounding in his ears and gave him something small to grab onto. He took it. As soon as he focused on Morgan, the rest of the world around him came into hazy attention. Pepper was sitting next to him, rubbing circles on his back and trying to calm him down. He heard a snippet of his name. It was another thing to focus on. The distractions gave him a chance to sneak in a much needed breath before his mind knew what he was doing.

He slowly pressed that breath from his lungs.

Before he took another.

Then he exhaled.

And pulled in another bit of air.

After a few more minutes of this focused breathing, Tony was able to find some semblance of balance. Once his lungs had thawed, he looked over at Morgan. He took in his baby boy's red-rimmed blue eyes, eyes that reminded him so much of Pepper's, and he realized Morgan had stopped crying and was just watching him again. Tony felt himself finally calming down. Morgan seemed to inexplicably understand that too because he reached up with grasping, chubby fingers and demanded, "Dada..."

For everything that had happened, Tony couldn't help but snort at that action. He pulled Morgan off Pepper's lap and tucked him into his own before dipping his forehead into his baby's curls as he tried to compose himself. After a minute, Tony looked back up at Pepper, "Why can't I protect him?" When she didn't immediately answer him, he gestured down to the small child in his lap and whispered, "What if I can't protect him?" He paused again, looking Pepper directly in the eyes before he finished, "What if I can't protect you?"

"Oh Tony," Pepper whispered, unshed tears glistening in her eyes, "You can't predict everything, you can't plan for everything but you can do everything in your power to ensure that if something does happen, you do something about it. And you did." She pressed her hand to his cheek and gently forced him to keep looking at her, "You protect the people you love, Tony, that's what you do. Peter's going to be okay. He's going to be okay and he's going to have you to continue worrying over him and making sure that he continues to be okay. But, right now, you have to be positive." She dropped her hand when she saw his gaze flick back to Morgan.

Tony thought about what she had said and dropped his head back into Morgan's hair, tugging the his son a little more securely into his lap. His voice, muffled though it was by his baby's hair, was loud enough to carry his concern, "He graduates in six days, Pep. All this and he still hasn't left high school. I have no idea what that means."

"It means that he's a handful and you have your work cut out for you." Then she tried to bring some levity to the situation with a small smile, "It means you know what I have been dealing with for the last eleven years."

Tony snorted out a laugh, flicked his eyes up to meet her's, and then apologized, "I'm so sorry for that, Pepper."

She leaned over and kissed his hairline, "You wouldn't be you if you didn't put me through everything you have to save as many people as you have. And Peter wouldn't be Peter if he didn't give you grey hair and do exactly the same thing."

* * *

The room eased into a significantly more positive quiet as they waited. With the calm in the room, Pepper's mind turned back to something she had asked herself briefly while she was waiting for Tony to wake up. Now that she had another moment, she couldn't help but vocalize it, "How'd Peter get here?" She paused until Tony looked up at her and then she continued, "I know that he's done it before, made it to the Compound from Queens, but he was badly hurt. How did he get here?"

Tony shook his head as the gears started to turn but when he couldn't come up with a good answer, he admitted, "I don't know." He did know where he could get his answer though and he called out, "FRIDAY, how'd Pete get back here?"

The room was silent for a moment before Karen's voice cut in, "I projected a path that would give him a chance to travel along major highways. When he was close to passing out, I would direct him to a car or a truck whose GPS showed they were going in the correct direction. It gave him a chance to rest while still moving toward the Compound."

Pepper waited for the voice to stop talking before she looked over at Tony, her eyes wide, "Who's that?"

Tony realized Pepper had never met Karen and with a small smirk, he flicked up his hand and explained, "That's Karen, she's the AI in Peter's suit. I didn't think he would want FRIDAY, so I made him his own."

Pepper's eyes widened even further, "You made him his own AI? And her name is...Karen?"

Tony shrugged, "Seemed like the thing to do at the time and now I'm incredibly glad I did. But the name, that was his, not mine. He called her suit lady for a bit so I think Karen was a step up." He opened his mouth to ask something else when he was interrupted by the AI, "Hello, Ms. Potts, I don't believe we've met."

Pepper smiled at the manners of Peter's AI, it made sense, and she awkwardly tried to return the favor, "Na…no, we haven't. Hello, Karen."

Karen happily responded, "I wish it had been under better circumstances, but it is nice to finally meet you. Peter talks about you and Morgan a lot."

Pepper smiled and her voice lilted a bit when she asked, "Oh he does, does he?"

But Tony snapped his fingers a few times and pulled the attention back to the problem at hand, "Pete's been teaching you bad habits, Karen." Tony smirked before he continued in a more serious tone, "Did he have any problems?"

Karen's voice was apologetic when she explained, "He fell a few times, but not far and he never passed out completely. He also had to reapply the compression webs twice more after the initial attack. The first time it was because blood soaked through the binding and the second was because it failed to continue to hold the wound closed."

Tony waited to see if there was anything more and when Karen didn't continue, he assumed she had summarized everything she could. He couldn't take hearing the specifics right now so Tony scrubbed his hand over his face as he processed the information. Eventually, he ground out, "Thanks, Karen."

"You're welcome, Mr. Stark."

Tony could almost hear FRIDAY taking back over control but he didn't ask, he just looked over at Pepper, taking in the miserable expression on her face, and replied, "Guess that's how he did it."

Pepper felt her own façade cracking, she knew she needed to be strong for Tony but at the same time, she realized that if at any point Peter had rolled or fell or passed out, that he wouldn't have made it back. She didn't want to say it because she didn't want to give Tony something else to dwell on but she should have known better than to even think it because when she looked up at him it must have shown on her face.

Tony knew what Pepper was thinking and he couldn't help but utter, "Yah I know, I'm thinking the same thing. This was close Pepper, really close." He grabbed ahold of her hand and squeezed before she returned the gesture.

Pepper didn't voice her agreement, she just let it float in the air, there was no reason to belabor the reality.

Neither one really knew what else to say and the conversation slipped away, leaving a slightly tenser silence behind.

* * *

It took another twenty-five minutes before the doctor arrived. Dr. Elliot Sposek was a tall man with close-cropped sandy brown hair and an easy smile that faltered spectacularly when he stepped into the room and was immediately met by the intense gaze of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. He couldn't help but swallow hard. This was only his third month with the Avengers and he had yet to have any real interactions with them but he knew that he was supposed to report what happened directly to them. He cleared his throat before he greeted, "Mr. Stark, Ms. Potts." He paused awkwardly, he already had their undivided attention and he quickly tried to cover his nervous mistake, "First, the most important thing, Peter's going to make it. He's not completely out of the woods yet but his overall prognosis is good." He paused as he let the two take that in.

Tony's relief was visible but he was already way ahead of the man. In the back of his mind, he could tell the doctor was nervous but, frankly he didn't care, he just wanted information he needed so he could see Peter. With that in mind, when the doctor paused, Tony took that as a chance to ask questions, "What happened?"

Sposek started but answered as directly as he could, "Whoever stabbed him worked the knife across his side, tearing the muscle and stomach lining which caused a significant amount of damage. But the main problem was blood loss. It's the reason we want to keep him under watch for at least a full day. He was in hypovolemic shock when he made it to the Compound, and honestly, it's a miracle he made it this far. I'm assuming that is mainly because of his healing factor. If he was able to get any rest for even short periods of time, he would have been able to stave off the worst effects for a short time. I'm guessing that's how he was able to get back here."

"Should we be expecting any complications?" Tony's voice held a level of trepidation that the adults in the room didn't miss.

And the doctor was quick to answer that, "I don't believe so. I'm optimistic that the worst of it was probably what you've already dealt with." The doctor let that sink in for a moment, as if he was hoping that would alleviate some of the palpable stress blanketing the room. Then he continued, "I heard about what happened and I need to tell you Mr. Stark, you absolutely saved his life. If you hadn't been there, he would have been brain dead in a less than ten minutes. As it stands now, he'll have some memory loss, I don't think he'll remember getting here and he might not remember the event but given how he heals, I wouldn't be surprised if he remembers more than I'm estimating." He watched Tony drop his head to his chest and he could see the slight shake to the man's hand. He knew that Tony had a moderate panic attack after the medics had gotten there and he rushed to make sure that didn't happen again. He turned his head to the side and bent at the waist, trying to get the man's attention, "Mr. Stark?" He narrowed his eyes a bit as he waited for Tony to look up at him. When he had his attention, he explained, "Peter's going to survive, Mr. Stark."

Tony groaned at the doctor's response, he understood that and now he wanted to see Peter. His impatience bled through when he snapped, "I get that, when can I see him?"

The doctor nervously glanced over at Pepper for a moment before he answered, "He'll be brought in here with you, I was told this is where he needs to be. He should be in soon, no more than ten minutes."

Tony relaxed farther at that, the tremors in his bad hand easing as he breathed out, "Thank you."

But Sposek wasn't quite done and it was clear that Tony's snark shook him a bit because his voice wavered slightly when he added, "I do have one more thing, Mr. Stark. We're going to keep him in an induced coma for at least half a day. This doesn't mean there's something wrong, just that I want to make sure his body has a chance to heal before he's completely aware of everything that happened. I'm not sure what specific effects something an event like this will have on his system and I want to ease him back into consciousness."

Tony nodded carefully as he considered that. He had wanted to talk to Peter but it looked like he was going to have to wait a little longer. After half a minute of awkward silence, Tony cleared his throat and looked up at the doctor with a mildly thunderous gaze, his voice exacting, "Is something else wrong?"

"N…no, Mr. Stark, I just wanted to make sure you understood what was happening."

Tony's impatience flashed to undeserved annoyance at this man's continued hovering and he couldn't help but snap, "Got it. I understand…" He almost took his admonishment a step farther but stopped when he felt Pepper's hand grip his shoulder.

Pepper could feel the tension in Tony's back and she had caught how badly his hand was shaking, something she was sure the doctor had noticed too, given the way his eyes kept flicking down toward Tony's hand. Still, she covered for her husband's warranted impatience by giving the doctor a kind smile and adding sweetly but firmly, "Thank you Dr. Sposek, for everything."

Sposek dipped his head slightly in her direction, "Of course, Ms. Potts." Then he turned for the door, understanding that they needed space and he was simply intruding at this point.

As soon as the door closed, Pepper turned back to Tony, afraid that he had caught something she hadn't. Pepper continued rubbing her hand across his back before she quietly asked, "What is it, Tony? What's wrong? That was good news."

He was sitting staring straight ahead, his arms tightly wrapped around Morgan and he managed to stutter out, "No…nothing is wrong, Pep." Then he turned, his relief was clear on his face for only a moment before he wrapped her in a hug.

Pepper hugged him back just as tight before eventually she pulled back and slid her arm firmly around his back. Laying her head on his shoulder, she pressed a kiss to his cheek. And they sat that way as they waited.

* * *

When they finally brought Peter in, Tony felt his breath catch in his throat. Peter was still incredibly pale but at least his skin's blue tinge, something Tony just realized he had noticed before, was gone. Tony quickly reminded himself that the cannula under his nose was meant to help with that. He was struck by how small and still his son looked under the pile of blankets. Peter was meant to be animated and bright, so much more active than this. It broke Tony's heart all over again to see the state of his son. But at the same time, he thanked every deity he could think of that Peter made it here because for as bad as he looked, he was breathing. Then Tony heard the monitors kick on as the nurses attached leads to Peter's chest and as the steady heartbeat echoed through the room, Tony was finally able to release the crushing weight that had been sitting on his chest since Peter had appeared on his balcony.

He had the overwhelming need to move but he restrained himself, knowing that he would be in the nurses' way. Still, he couldn't help himself as he started to tap his foot, quickly becoming impatient at how slowly they were moving. He chastised himself for that thought because he knew they were just being thorough but at the same time, he wanted them to be done.

After what felt like an eternity, they were. And Tony started to move as soon as the door shut behind them. It was only a short leap but Tony practically dove into the chair next to the bed like a child who was worried about being last in line. It was undignified and ungraceful but as long as it got him there, he didn't care. He leaned forward onto his elbows, close enough to run his hand through Peter's hair, smiling as his kid turned incrementally into the touch. Tony ached to hug him, to _know_ beyond any mechanical information that Peter was in fact still with him but he knew he couldn't yet. Instead, he pulled the chair as close as he could, grabbed ahold of Peter's hand, and stared, with an intensity normally reserved for a world-ending problem, at the intermittent twitches of his face and the even rise and fall of his chest.

Pepper sat down in the chair next to him and just watched. For a moment, she flashed back to the sarcastic gift she had given him years ago, the small glass box with his first arc reactor. The sentiment was one that never actually needed to be said, "Proof that Tony Stark has a heart". And the whole thing had been a load of bullshit the moment she had sent it off to be made. She had known after only working with him for a short time that his bravado and bluster were a cover for someone who truly did want to care but had absolutely no idea how to show it. And now she watched as the man, who definitely had a heart, collapsed at the bedside of a teenager he loved like his own son despite having no parental claim or responsibility to him. She watched the way he tenderly brushed back Peter's hair, touched his cheek, and just watched him with a look of love so pure that Pepper was blown away. Tony was never a man without a heart, he just needed to find the right reasons to trust it.

Tony knew that Pepper had sat down next to him and he heard Morgan softly repeating Peter's name, but still he wasn't able to look at them, he was fixated on Peter. And as he reveled in the fact that his son was still alive, Tony couldn't help but start to talk regardless of his audience, "I'm sorry, Pete. I'm so sorry. I should have been faster, I should have known." He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Peter's forehead before settling back down next to him and tucking his son's hand under his own before swearing, "I'm gonna be here when you wake up." Then Tony looked over at Pepper. She had laid her hand on his back again at some point and he wanted to acknowledge the comfort. He took in his beautiful wife, sincerity clear in his tone when he whispered, "Thank you, Pep, for everything."

Pepper smiled softly as she continued her slow, methodic circles on his back. She watched him lovingly before she responded, "Of course, Tony." Then she flicked her eyes back to the teenager who had put them in this mess. Tony's gaze followed. He laid his head over their sandwiched hands and watched.

* * *

He could have asked FRIDAY how long they had sat there but realized it didn't matter, he'd wait as long as he needed to. But eventually, Morgan got fussy. The unfamiliar environment had kept him curious enough to keep him quiet but the longer he stayed, the less his curiosity was able to hold him enthralled. Finally, he made it known. Pepper practically jumped up at his cries, afraid he would wake up Peter. Bouncing the baby on her hip in an attempt to calm him enough for her to keep that from happening and to say her goodnights, she quietly explained, "Well, that's my cue, I'm going to get him back to sleep before he manages to wake Peter up."

Tony sat up and watched her, uncertainty clear in his expression as he tentatively asked, "Should I come with you?"

She laid her free hand on the side of his face and smiled down at him, thankful for his dedication, "No, Tony, you shouldn't. You should stay here with Peter and I'll get Morgan settled." She paused, watching the relief flash across his face before she added, "You're a good dad, Tony." Then she leaned down and gave him a soft kiss before she headed for the door. Before she left, she called over her shoulder, "Try to get some sleep, Tony. I'll bring him," she popped a placated Morgan up on her hip as an indication, "back down after he's had at least a nap."

Tony watched them leave and once the door snapped shut behind them, he buried his head back in his arms. When he was alone, his thoughts were finally lacking a direction and the longer he sat there, the more acutely he realized how close he had come, actually come, to losing Peter. To watching him go where Tony couldn't follow. That sentiment terrified him and made him scoot just a little closer. When he was satisfied that the only way he could be physically closer was to lay in the bed, Tony finally gave in to the need for sleep that had been pushed to the back of his mind for the better part of the night. He knew it had to be close to sunrise and he couldn't fight the exhaustion any longer. Without an inclination of when, he passed out, tucked as close as he could be to his son.

* * *

**So I'm thinking this story will only have two more chapters at least that's what I have planned out right now.**

**Also, for the one scene where they were just sitting with Peter, I took a lot of that from the hug scene in Endgame. I was trying to find the right verbiage to describe the look Tony gave Peter and, while I was only watching it on grainy Youtube videos, I would consider it loving :) **

**Feel free to let me know what you thought about the chapter in the reviews!**

**I hope you have a wonderful day/night and stay creative!**

**-Lily**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone!**

**So I have another update for you :)**

**Thank you to everyone who favorited and followed, its awesome :) I also want to make sure I say thank you to my reviewers so, thank you to:**

** \- the incredible CharlieLittle, Holy crap thank you for saying that! I'm glad that Pepper's character worked because that was one I went back and forth on for a while. I love that idea and I feel like I'm definitely going to have to find a way to work that in now :) Thank you for commenting!**

** \- the wonderful Bellatlas, Thanks so much :) I hope this chapter helps with that request ;)**

** \- the amazing MayaTanner18, You're so sweet for saying both of those things, it really is awesome to read :) And that was totally one of my favorite parts too, it was adorable and I love RDJ for being able to convey so much with a look!**

** \- the fantastic JohnGilberyVampirehunter, I totally agree and the fact that he was able to roll through so many identifiable emotions in a way that makes sense still blows my mind. I have to agree with some of the stuff I've been reading, he definitely deserves an Oscar and honestly if he was nominated, I might actually watch this year haha**

** \- the excellent Proud Hollander, Thanks :) I'm glad you enjoyed it so much and I'm glad you like my stories. Hopefully this chapter delivers!**

**\- the marvelous Ija, I'm so glad its worked that way and I'm glad you enjoyed it! Saying this with all honesty, I killed Peter in one of my other stories and it is easily one of the most difficult things I've ever had to write...I don't think I could do it again.**

**\- the outstanding SweetWritingIsMyLife, I'm glad the feels work here! Thank you so much for saying that and I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Thank you again to all you wonderful people who are reading this and without further ado,**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

They were sitting in the conference room shoulder to shoulder, both glancing intermittently at the door as they waited for the third member of their party to join them. The call had been scheduled for nine and as the second hand crept closer, Natasha leaned over to Steve and whispered out of the side of her mouth, "Tony said he was going to be here, right?" Her attention was fixed on the projection platform, waiting for Lister's likeness to appear.

Steve glanced over at her with a frown as he considered her question before he answered without a bit of sarcasm, "Yah, he did. And he said he really didn't want to miss it." They were waiting for the final report from the general and Steve remembered Tony's adamant request that he be included in this discussion, even though he had willingly sat out from many of the others.

Natasha chewed that answer over before she asked with trepidation, "Morgan?"

Steve nodded, knowing there were very few things that would keep Tony from this particularly significant meeting and he then verbally agreed, "Probably." But when he recognized the fear in her eyes, he assured, "I'm sure he kept them up last night and FRIDAY is just letting Tony sleep. It's okay, we can fill him in later, it's not like this won't be recorded anyway."

Natasha nodded but couldn't continue the conversation when the projected imagine of General Lister appeared in the seat before them. Tony would have to be a topic of conversation afterward.

* * *

The meeting took about an hour and Tony never showed up. It was difficult for Natasha to keep her mind from wandering to why. It was a sporadic thought as she forced herself to pay attention to Lister's report but at the same time, she couldn't shake the intuitive concern pressing just at the corners of her mind when something not particularly interesting was brought up. There had to be a reason for his absence but then a question was directed at her and she forced herself to reengage in the conversation.

Once the call ended, with only a glance Natasha realized that Steve had the same question she did, probably had been thinking about it throughout the entirety of the meeting too and that meant it was worth asking. Decision made, Natasha called out, "FRIDAY, where's Tony?"

"He is currently in the medical wing, room A5."

Steve and Natasha shared a look before both jumped out of their seats and ran out of the room. Natasha felt sick to her stomach as soon as she heard it, she had told Lister Tony wasn't there because Morgan had gotten sick and now hearing that he was had missed the meeting because he was in the medical wing, made her pray that was not what was going on. Still she couldn't keep her inner voice from reminding her that would have been the kind of thing to keep him away from any meeting.

While Natasha's inner monologue ran rampant, Steve did the rational thing and called up the ceiling as they skid into the elevator, "What happened? Is everyone alright?"

"Everyone is fine now, Captain Rogers. Peter returned from his patrol last night with a few serious injuries and is currently recovering. Mr. Stark is with him."

Once they heard that, both Avengers let out a tense breath. Steve dropped his head to his chest in relief and Natasha pressed her hand to her stomach, stilling the proverbial butterflies. The knowledge that everyone was at least okay was enough to placate a good amount of their concern. It also helped to know that at least someone was there with Peter.

When the elevator door pinged open, both had calmed down significantly, they were still going to see Peter but the initial overwhelming panic had dulled into an uneasy queasiness and they walked a bit more normally, if fast. They paused just outside the room, unable to see in through the blind-covered window so with a silent agreement, Natasha quietly pressed open the door and peered inside. Steve leaned just over her shoulder. The lights in the room were dim but they could see Tony sitting next to the bed, his shoulders were bowed but he seemed to be sitting up. Unfortunately, the awkwardness of his posture made it difficult to tell if he was awake or not so Natasha took a step inside and whispered, "Tony?"

Tony turned slightly at his name and his shoulders dipped just a little lower when he realized who it was. He wasn't ready for anyone else to be in this room, he hadn't even had a chance to talk to Peter. Still, he couldn't ignore them, he knew they would be worried at the scene before them and he knew what that was like, it wasn't fair to put them through it. He turned back toward Peter and responded in an equivalent whisper, "Yah, Natasha?"

Steve and Natasha took that as their invitation. Both stepped into the room and came to stand behind Tony's chair. As they waited for him to turn around, neither could help but notice that Peter looked incredibly pale, but short of a bruise on the side of his head, he looked okay. He just looked like he was sleeping. Unfortunately, that façade was broken when Tony turned to look at them and the worry radiating off him was almost palpably agonizing. His hair was disheveled, he was still wearing his pajamas, and he had dark bags under his eyes that spoke of more than just sleep deprivation.

Tony knew he looked bad, he had been hunched in the chair since Pepper had left. He had managed to sleep for a bit but that unfortunately didn't last as long as he wanted or needed so he was left thinking and holding Peter's hand, silently begging for him to wake up. Still, he now had to deal with the others and he turned more fully to address them even though he never lost the grip he had. Yet just because he acknowledged them, didn't mean he needed to start, he was too damn tired for that. He gave them his attention but they needed to ask the questions.

Natasha and Steve stood awkwardly waiting for Tony to explain or yell or do something but when he didn't, after a few minutes Steve asked, "What happened?"

Tony desperately did not want to explain what had happened but he also knew it was the only way to get them to leave so...he started with the balcony. He tried to keep his voice as even as possible, as disassociated as possible because he knew that if he allowed any of his fear to creep in, they would know just how bad it was. It kind of worked. He wasn't crying but by the time he was done he was fidgeting, twisting his fingers tightly around Peter's in an attempt to remind himself that everything was okay. He was met with silence as Steve and Natasha stared hard at the teenager on the bed.

Eventually it was Natasha who spoke, her voice a bit wobbly as she tried to control her own concern, "And they're sure he's going to be okay?"

Tony nodded tiredly in the affirmative. Yet when the silence fell, he couldn't help but vocalize his silent plea, the one he had been making for the better part of the morning, "Yah he's going to be okay...but I...I just want him to wake up."

Steve reached forward and put his hand on Tony's shoulder, giving it a slight squeeze before he quietly asked, "Do you want us to leave?"

Tony knew that was hard for him to ask because they wanted to stay. It had become a habit with anyone who was around to try to keep the injured company in as big a group as possible. And Tony knew that Peter would appreciate it but he couldn't handle anyone else right now. Even Steve and Natasha were too much. He needed a chance to talk to Peter before the rest of the team found out. So he nodded even as the guilt was clear on his face.

Steve squeezed his shoulder again before dropping his hand and turning to leave.

Natasha stood frozen for just a few more moments, unable to process the realization that they had almost lost their youngest member. Then Tony's request made it through her reconciling mind and she turned too, her shoulders sagged from their normal proud height.

Tony was infinitely thankful that they seemed to understand and he slumped a little more back into his chair until something else occurred to him. He heard one of them turn the handle and before they could make it out the door, Tony turned and asked, "Why'd you come looking for me?"

Steve and Natasha both turned, taking one fleeting glance at the teenager in the bed before Steve answered simply, "You missed a meeting." Without further explanation, they stepped into the hallway and Steve pulled the door closed behind them.

Tony realized what meeting it had been and he groaned when he realized he was going to have to ask Steve and Natasha to fill him in but but right now, he wasn't ready. Instead, he tucked Peter's hand back into his, dug his head back into the pillow of arms, and closed his eyes. If he was able to sleep, maybe it would seem like this was over quicker.

* * *

"Oh crap…" Peter groaned as he slowly started to wake up, he was groggier than he had ever been before and he hurt. Like really hurt. He was stiff and if he moved wrong he could feel bones shift in his chest. God, why did he hurt so much? He tried to remember exactly why he was in a hospital bed and the more he thought about it, the more muddled it became. He remembered a knife, blinding pain, compression webs, and a potentially bad decision but after that, nothing really made sense. Obviously he had made it to the Compound so he couldn't have been hurt as bad as what he remembered. But he couldn't shake the idea that there was something he was missing, something he couldn't quite place. He shook his head to try to clear it and instead he just made himself dizzy.

Then his head started to throb.

Peter tugged his hands up and pressed his face into them, trying to make it stop.

It didn't work.

He smashed his palms into his eyes trying to crush the headache into oblivion.

That didn't work either.

Frustrated at his inability to mash his migraine away, he groaned as he dropped his hands heavily against the bed, maybe he could find someone who could give him some aspirin or something?

As he slowly forced his heavy eyes open, he recoiled slightly when he saw Tony standing awkwardly at the side of the bed. That fright only lasted for a split second before it turned into opportunity, Peter knew Tony would know what happened. In an attempt to get some answers, Peter squeaked out, "Dad? Waz goin' on?" But instead of an answer, his dad's face scrunched as tears sprang into his eyes and he lunged forward, wrapping Peter in a tight hug. Peter froze for a moment as he tried to put together the events that would lead to that level of naked emotion but he couldn't come up with anything. Still, the need for an explanation became irrelevant as soon as Peter returned the gesture, because for some reason, his dad started to cry as soon as Peter wrapped his arms around him. That suddenly became more pressing.

* * *

Tony was dozing when he thought he heard something but wasn't completely sure what it was, instead, he chalked it up to his own exhaustion. But then the hand he was laying on was torn out from under him. That got his attention. His head snapped up, following the hand and he realized that Peter was waking up. His kid had pressed his hands into his face and for as much as Tony wanted to hug him, he couldn't. He was frozen, standing awkwardly at the side of the bed. Instead, he watched as his son shook his head and groaned against what he assumed was pain. Tony winced knowing he had caused of a lot of that. Then Peter dropped his hands, jumped, and asked what was going on. But Tony's tongue became lead in his mouth, so instead of answering, he dropped onto the side of the bed, lunged forward, and pulled Peter into a desperate hug. He wrapped a hand around the base of Peter's neck and the other around his back, holding him tight enough that he could feel his son's heartbeat against his chest. In that moment, he knew, finally _knew_ that Peter was okay. Then Peter's arms closed around his back, holding him tightly in return and at the singular motion, Tony started to cry.

* * *

Peter wasn't sure what to expect but his dad sobbing against his shoulder before he could even figure out what was going on was not it. Instead, he tightened his arms around Tony's back and, doing what he did best, started talking, "It's okay, dad. Whatever it is, it's okay…promise."

Tony just choked out a nervous laugh at what Peter was saying. What did he ever do to deserve this kid? He knew it wasn't really okay, not yet, but hearing Peter say anything was an incredible relief.

They stayed that way for a while until Tony calmed down and Peter felt it was safe to ask exactly what was going on. He slowly pulled back from Tony's arms but was careful not to lose physical contact, instinctually understanding his dad still needed it. Once he could look Tony in the eye, he quietly asked, "What happened?"

Tony sighed, he knew he was going to have to explain eventually but he had hoped to wait a little longer. He tried to buy himself some more time, so he asked in return, "What do you remember?"

Peter shook his head carefully, wincing again when the motion made his headache briefly worse, before he replied, "Not much. I got stabbed on patrol, I think some guy was trying to see what I had for dinner and I tried to seal it up before I came back here. I'm guessing it worked but I'm not totally sure how I got back here…that's about all I got."

"That's about what I know too." Tony hurriedly answered thankful that Peter at least seemed to have the gist and maybe that would be enough to placate him for now.

Peter narrowed his eyes at the obvious attempt to dissuade him from asking anything else. Something had happened, so he pressed, "Dad, come on, I'm in a hospital bed and I hurt…really bad. More than I should from a couple of knife wounds." Peter tapped his hand to his chest as he tried to emphasize what was going on, "My chest is killin' me."

Tony crumpled. He knew better, he knew Peter wouldn't be happy with the snippets he remembered. Tony didn't want to tell him what happened but he knew he would just ask someone else and he felt incredibly responsible so he answered, his voice quiet, "That's my fault, Pete." Tony dropped his eyes to the bed and swallowed hard before he hesitantly forced out the rest of the story, "When you…when you got here you were in bad shape…I tried to help, but…" Tony coughed awkwardly as he tried to figure out exactly how to say this and glancing up to see Peter's trusting face was not helping. He flicked his hand in front of him a few times as if that would answer the question but when it failed to convey the truth, he forced himself to stutter out something not good enough, "You…umm…you…God, Pete…" Tony paused once more and winced before he rushed through what happened, "When you got here you had already lost a lot of blood and you were in shock. It was bad Pete, you…your heart stopped before the medics could get there. I tried to h…help, I swear I did but I…uh…I'm sorry..."

Peter felt like someone smacked him and, forgetting his decision to stay in contact with his dad, Peter heavily dropped back into the pillows behind him, his eyes finding a blank spot somewhere between them on the bed before he whispered, "I…I died?"

Tony found that same non-descript point as he felt tears spring back into his eyes when that terrible scene played out in front of him again, "Yah…" Tony deflated farther.

Peter heard the agony in Tony's short answer and snapped his eyes up to look at his dad. The raw pain he could see hurt as bad as the physical pain in his own chest. Acting on instinct, Peter leaned forward and dug his fingers almost painfully into Tony's shoulders, tugging him forward. Because they both _needed_ the contact.

Tony immediately responded. He gathered his son back up in his arms and clung to him. Letting Peter do the same. Reveling in the fact that Peter could do the same.

Peter's mind was numb. Had he really died? Given the way his dad was acting, he couldn't find a way to think anything else happened. Peter knew he would be no less put together if Tony had died. So it was just easier to push it away for right now, to be comfortable where he was and he resolved to do just that, tucking his head into Tony's shoulder and wrapping his arms a little tighter.

The longer he held his son, Tony felt the relief slowly twisting back into a knot of cold fear in his stomach, he couldn't do this again. He felt that fear slowly evolving into anger and he scrambled to suppress it, to ignore it, to focus on Peter but it wasn't working. And he suddenly felt an overwhelming need to tell Peter exactly what he needed.

Without warning, Tony pulled back and pushed Peter to arm's length while his voice dropped into furious sincerity, "Don't you ever do that again, Peter." He shook his head as he continued, "I'm not talking about it like the last time either. Don't you ever scare me like that again." He watched Peter's gaze harden and he realized what he was thinking, it was the same thing that ran through his mind every time Pepper asked him to stop. He hurried to correct the sentiment, "I'm not telling you to stop because lord knows Pepper has tried that with me a thousand times…but don't you ever go out again without a safety net. Ever." He held Peter's gaze as he stared him down, his voice breaking, "I'm willing to admit that some of this is on me. I should have forbid you from going out last night but you had the option and you knew the communications were down and you still went."

Peter wasn't sure exactly where the anger had come from. He thought they were okay and the sudden shift threw him off balance. In the back of his mind, he knew that if he had been able to process even a fraction of what he had been told, he would have been able to figure out what had caused the shift but he had just woken up, apparently from being dead and he wasn't able to follow Tony's drastic mood change. Instead, he was caught off guard by the sudden fierceness radiating from his dad. Confusion welled up in his chest and it left Peter with the ability to only match emotions and it wasn't exactly hard, it kind of sounded like his dad was telling him to stop being Spider-Man. He hardened his resolve and immediately prepared to defend himself. But then Tony's train of thought changed again, became more preventative and concerned, and in an epiphany Peter realized that the full story of what happened to him had an irreversible impact on Tony. Peter felt undirected guilt pool in his stomach when he realized that and he tried to navigate through the torrent of emotion and information coming at him but the best he could do was be apologetic, because he didn't regret the action that got him hurt, "Dad, I didn't mean for anything to happen, I was just trying to help someone. I know it was dangerous to go out without backup but I haven't been out in a while and I needed to make sure that I was still being me and helping. I'm sorry I got hurt but I couldn't just avoid doing what's right." When he saw Tony's thunderous gaze, Peter realized he had read something very wrong and he quickly threw out another placating, "I'm sorry."

Tony knew he had to be confusing his son but he was scared and angry and coherent thoughts flew out the window when he growled, "Sorry doesn't cut it, Pete, not this time. Not even close." Tony was deadly serious, his voice dark and the undercurrent was excruciatingly painful, "You _died_, Peter. And you were lucky…god I can't believe I'm saying that." His gaze wandered up to the ceiling for a few moments before he looked over at Peter again, anger and pain warring in his eyes before he continued, "If you hadn't made it back here, you would have stayed dead. That's it. You would have been dead. There wouldn't have been any stones or a gauntlet or anything I could have done to bring you back. I would have _lost_ you. I would have had to bury you. Mourn you. I've done that before…I'm not doing it again." Tony paused, letting that sink in to his thick-headed son before he laid down his newest rule, "If you don't have backup, you don't go out. That's it."

Peter reacted viscerally to being told he couldn't go out and help, skipping passed the part he couldn't even begin to comprehend right now given everything else that was coming at him. He heard the conditions but his muddled mind had a hard time reconciling them so it was easier to just go with the simple explanation, that Tony wanted him to stop being Spider-Man and he retorted, "You can't say that. And I can't do that. How many times did you do something on your own with only yourself to get through it?" Then he pressed, his voice softening in his earnestness, "It was most of the time, dad. You can't get mad at me because I want to help people. Not when you spent eleven years doing the same thing."

But Tony was adamant, his own fear flaring as he bluntly stated, "I can." Then he continued, cutting off the retort he could see coming, "I can get mad at you." That fierce tone was back and he snarled, "You showed up on my balcony, bleeding. You collapsed before I could even get you on the bed. You died…as in stopped living…while Pepper and I were trying to help you. I broke your ribs trying to keep you alive." Tony's face fell as he said that. He hadn't realized how badly that sound had bothered him and the vulnerability in his voice betrayed that pain when he said, "I hurt you. I could hear the bones when they broke and I can't…Peter you can't understand what that felt like…" Without warning, Tony's eyes filled with tears again.

Peter snapped his mouth shut when Tony barked his anger. It was hard but he forced himself to listen to what his dad was saying and the more he talked, the more pain Peter could see carved into the lines on his face. He had scared Tony. Had really scared him. And that turned that small ball of guilt into a roiling mass in his stomach. But that focus also brought back memories that he didn't realize he had. He vividly saw Tony leaning over him, he could feel a phantom pressure on his stomach while his dad brushed his hair back and told him that it would be okay. He caught a snippet of Tony begging before it all went blank and Peter realized with shocking clarity that was the last thing he had seen before he…died. All his anger and confusion evaporated because that fact was now abundantly clear. His dad had watched him die. Peter felt sick at that. And as he pulled a little harder at those threads, he realized that as clearly as he saw it now, he could make out the pain and sheer terror in Tony's face even while he tried to hide it. Tony wasn't angry at him, he was scared. In that moment, Peter knew he needed to slow down and listen, he needed to make this right.

Tony continued in a calmer tone after that, "I need you to listen to me on this. You have to have backup at all times. And that's already most of the time, it's rare when you can't communicate with anyone and so it really shouldn't even cause a problem. But you have to remember, you matter to people, Peter. You can't throw yourself into situations without thinking about it, that was something it took me way too long to learn. I don't want you to stop but I need you to be safe." The implications in his statement hung in the charged air as a tense quiet settled over the room.

Peter couldn't handle the implications, it was all too much, so he dropped Tony's gaze and found a safer spot on the bed.

Tony couldn't take the sorrow and confusion he saw on Peter's face and the silence in the room wasn't helping but he couldn't think of anything else to say. Still, he had to do something. He leaned forward and pulled Peter back into a tight hug as the last of his frightened anger bled away and he could talk again, "Listen, I know this isn't your fault. You did everything right, you called when you got in trouble and I didn't have my phone. I'm to blame here but you scared the shit out of me, Peter. I promise, I'm going to keep my phone glued to my hand from now on but you have to promise me that you don't go out without known backup because I can't do _this_ again. Got it?"

Peter didn't trust himself to say anything and he just nodded into Tony's shoulder.

Tony buried his forehead into Peter's neck with a heavy sigh.

Peter felt the tension in Tony's shoulders and acutely realized just how badly he had scared him. The guilt and the pain built in equal measure as Peter could finally feel the stitches on his side pulling from the small movements he had been making and without his conscious permission, he started to cry. He really hadn't meant to scare his dad, he was just trying to help someone. His voice was muffled by Tony's shirt when he whispered, "'m sorry I scared you."

Tony immediately felt bad and wound his arms a little tighter, "'m sorry I got mad. You didn't deserve it, I just…after everything we've been through to see that…to have to do that…it terrified me, Peter." Tony paused for a moment, "And I'm only using terrified because I literarily cannot think of a word to explain just how badly you scared me."

"I know." Peter whispered in reply, he knew exactly what it felt like to see something like that and he understood the anger before he added, "I just thought that I would be okay."

Tony stiffened and wrapped his hand a little more firmly around the base of Peter's neck, "I know you did and you should have been, but I screwed up. I should have had my phone on me but it took so long to get Morgan down…I just didn't have it. I'm sorry, Peter."

Peter tightened his arms around Tony's back and whispered, "t's okay, dad. Promise. I'm alright and I'll be more careful next time."

"That's all I'm askin', you do so much good as Spider-Man, I don't want you to stop but I selfishly need Peter Parker to be safe. That's more important to me than anything." Tony paused to let that sink in before he continued, "Spider-Man is a reason to be proud of Peter Parker, not the other way around. I'm proud of _you_." Tony stressed it because he needed Peter to understand how absolutely crucial that idea was to him.

Peter could feel the tears falling faster, "Thanks, dad."

Again, the two clung to each other until Peter's exhaustion caught up with him and he winced against Tony's shoulder. The pain was getting worse and being crunched up was definitely not helping. Peter couldn't keep the discomfort out of his voice when he ground out, "Can we lay down, dad, please?"

Tony felt Peter's shoulders shaking and realized it was probably pain. He responded immediately, "Of course, Pete." Tony didn't ask how he wanted to lay, he simply shifted so he was propped up on the pillows at the head of the bed before Peter curled into his side, his head resting in the crook of Tony's shoulder. He ran his hand through Peter's hair while he rubbed his other hand up and down his son's arm. His voice was quiet when he asked, "Do you hurt?"

Peter nodded into Tony's chest.

"FRIDAY, let someone know that Pete's awake and he needs something for the pain."

Only a few minutes later, one of the nurses appeared, holding what Tony knew was the painkiller engineered specifically for Peter. Almost immediately after it was put into his IV, Tony felt the drug taking affect. Peter's shoulders stopped shaking, his slightly hitched breathing smoothed, and he slumped a little more firmly into Tony's arms.

Once the nurse left, and before Peter had a chance to fall asleep, Tony's voice cut through the comfortable quiet, "Just so you know we're going to change the fabric on that new design of yours. I know you like the lighter material but from now on, anything you wear needs to be impervious to knives."

Peter chuckled against his chest and started to say something before Tony cut him off, his voice only partially joking, "Nope, I'm afraid you heard knife resistant. When I say impervious, I mean impossible to cut through with the point or edge of a blade of any kind, known or unknown, in this universe."

Peter smiled into Tony's shirt, "Dad, I don't know if that's possible."

But Tony was adamant, and his voice was walking a line between serious and joking when he responded, "Then I guess we'd better get to work on some new tech type or engineered material to make it work because that's going to be your next suit."

Peter recognized the sincere honesty in his dad's statement, he presented it like a joke but that material was definitely his next project. Peter curled a little closer.

Tony couldn't help but look down at the young man next to him. He was the future of the Avengers and honestly, if what he had done so far was any small indication, the world would be safe as long as Spider-Man was in it. And Tony knew that for as long as he lived, he would be a better person with Peter Parker in his life.

And he would fight tooth and nail to hold to that truth.

Tony tugged Peter just a little closer and pressed a kiss to the top of his head, in the back of his mind, he knew his kid was probably too old for mushy shows of affection but when Peter didn't complain, Tony took that as acceptance of his continued doting. He was overcome by the need to explain exactly what he was thinking and keeping his voice low, he said, "I'm glad you're okay, Pete. I don't know if I would have done if you hadn't been."

Peter appreciated how secure he felt and knew how lucky he was to have Tony. And the man must have been thinking similar because he said he didn't know what he would have done if Peter hadn't made it. For a scary as it was to say, Peter knew exactly what Tony would have done and he smiled sadly up at him even as he answered with confidence, "You would have been alright, dad. You would've had to be because you can't leave Morgan, you have to be there for him same as you've been there for me." He paused, turning to face Tony as his eyes started to droop and he said with complete honesty, "I'm sorry I scared you…" He swallowed hard before he awkwardly said, "I'm sorry you had to…to do what you did but thank you for saving me."

"Anytime, Peter." Tony tugged him up a little higher on his chest, wrapping him up a little tighter, "I'm always here." And he meant it. No matter what the pain in the ass in his arms needed him to do, Tony knew he would always do it without question.

* * *

**So this isn't the end, there is still a little bit more to tell in this story but I hope their conversation was believable. I kind of felt like this would have been the first time that Tony was directly faced with something like this and having stewed on it for so long is part of the reason for his anger. He knew it was misdirected but that doesn't make it easier to deal with. **

**Feel free to let me know what you think in the reviews.**

**I hope everyone has a wonderful day/night and stay creative!**

**-Lily**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey everyone!**

**So this is the second to last chapter for this one. It was actually meant to be the last but I started writing an epilogue of sorts that works well with this story so that should be out in the next few weeks :) Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story, you're all wonderful!**

**As has become customary, I want to make sure I say thank you to my wonderful reviewers because I totally appreciate their amazing responses and ideas so, thank you to:**

** \- the wonderful SweetWritingIsMyLife, I'm so glad about that! Thank you for saying that :)**

** \- the amazing Proud Hollander, I'm sorry you cried, if its any consolation, I cried a bit when I was writing it. I kind of have to agree with you, I'm rewatching the series now in anticipation of Far From Home and so much of it just seems loaded now that I know how it wraps up :*( I'm really glad you liked the chapter though and I hope you enjoyed rewatching Homecoming! I understand the need for some Peter and Tony action!**

** \- the excellent MayaTanner18, He totally is! I'm super sad he won't be playing Iron Man anymore but I'm really excited to keep seeing him in things because he just is amazing. And you're so sweet! I hope it was good!**

** \- the fantastic skydancer121, You're totally fine and that sucks, I'm sorry! I'm glad your connection is back up again! And thank you so much for saying that, it really means a lot to read that :) I love you too!**

** \- the marvelous JohnGilbertVampirehunter, Yup that's kind of what I was going with and I'm so glad that I'm able to help you out with that. I totally need that too so I've resorted to writing my own situations haha**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorited, you're awesome and I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!**

**So without further ado, **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Not long after Tony accepted his thanks, Peter felt the drugs pulling him into oblivion. He knew he had maybe a few more minutes before they knocked him out for a while. They usually did. It was a relief really and as Peter drifted off, he remembered all the times he had tried taking aspirin, way too much aspirin, to deal with the bruises and breaks he routinely suffered through. At least until Tony had found out that's what he was doing. Once that happened, Peter was dragged into the world of medical research and in less than three weeks, they developed a painkiller that could work with his metabolism. It still had taken another year or so to sort it out completely but they had. And one of the nicest outcomes of his painkillers were they let him sleep. Plus he had a pretty comfortable pillow, a pretty comfy pillow Peter still wanted to ask something. Shifting with the little bit of consciousness he had left, Peter looked up at Tony and asked quietly, "Will you stay with me for a little longer?"

Tony smiled down at him and ran his hand through his hair, scratching at the back of his head as he assured, "'course Pete. What'd you think, I was going to make you move after you just got comfortable?"

Peter scrunched his nose up at that comment, how had his dad known what he had been thinking? Still, he hummed to himself as he considered that question and then when his sluggish mind couldn't find an answer, he shrugged uncoordinatedly. But something about that caused his dad to laugh, he could hear the chuckle resonate under his ear and that made him giggle.

Tony smiled down at Peter, waiting to see if he was going to say anything else and when his answer was to shrug in a way far less coordinated than his normal movement, Tony knew he wasn't going to get much more out of his kid. The painkillers had started their loopy phase and all Tony could do was laugh at Peter's responses, including his giggling . Trying to help him through the worst of it, Tony kept running his hands through Peter's curls, it wouldn't take long for his kid to fall asleep now.

Peter's giggles ebbed as he tried to remember exactly what he was laughing at but it didn't work, his muddled mind was too tired and instead, it reminded him that he was safe and there was no reason for him to keep clinging to consciousness. Peter hummed his acceptance of the idea and closed his eyes, drifting off into a dream-free and restful sleep.

* * *

The next time Peter woke up, Tony was asleep and he was holding Peter almost painfully tight. Or at least what would have been painfully tight without the painkillers, in this instance, it just felt nice. Peter shifted a little before he let his eyes fall closed again, slipping easily back into a doze. He felt a bit sharper, a bit more like himself now that he had slept off some of the loopier side effects. Still, even just closing his eyes felt good. But when he didn't fall asleep right away, his mind started to wander and dredge up all the realities he had been trying to avoid. And once he started thinking about it, he couldn't stop, which left him in an awkward dozing, hazy world assaulted by all the things his dad had told him and the memories he didn't realize he had. It all swirled and bumped into itself and unfortunately, tucking his head farther into Tony's shoulder wasn't making it stop. Instead, he just had to deal with it.

Peter wasn't sure how long he had been dozing in his terrible, analytic dream world when he heard the doorknob turn softly against the metallic latch. Worried it might be a doctor who would make him move, Peter kept his eyes closed and his breathing as even as he could while he perked up his ears at the new visitor. Even if he wasn't too keen on the things swirling through his head, he still wanted to stay where he was. But as his visitor stepped into the room, the first thing he noticed was the smell of baby powder followed closely by the telltale sound of Pepper's soft hums and coos, answered by Morgan's giggles. So they had visitors. Immediately, Peter opened his eyes, a wide smile on his face, even with everything else, he was happy to see his family.

As Pepper turned back around, Morgan on her hip, she caught sight of Peter's expression and returned the smile. She quietly stepped over to the bed and slipped into the chair Tony had pulled close while Morgan struggled a bit in her arms. Once she turned him around though, Morgan settled at the sight of his brother and dad, mesmerized as Peter waggled his fingers in the little boy's direction. Morgan gave a gurgling giggle before he reached out and started repeating, "Pedee". Pepper wrapped her arms a little tighter around him to keep him from falling forward and he settled with saying his brother's name, popping the 'p' like a game.

Once they were comfortable, Pepper softly greeted, "Hey Peter."

"Hey Ms. Potts," Peter replied.

Pepper let her smile drop a little bit into a knowing look and with a shake of her head, she gently admonished, "Peter, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Pepper?"

Peter dropped his eyes nervously before whispering, "Sorry…Pepper." He was rewarded with a beaming smile that made him a little less self-conscious at the use of her name.

Leaning forward a bit in an effort to keep from waking up her sleeping husband, she asked quietly, "How are you doing?" Almost without warning, she had to tuck her hands back around Morgan when he used the proximity to the bed as an excuse to lean even farther forward and grab at the sheets.

Peter smirked at Morgan and then took a second to think before he answered her question, his voice equally quiet, "I'm okay. I don't feel anything pain-wise so that's a good thing…" He trailed off as he tried to figure out exactly why he was hit with a sudden surge of discomfort with his answer. It was as if all those swirling thoughts from before were looking for an out and Pepper had offered them one but Peter wasn't even sure what to do with those thoughts, let alone how to communicate them to someone else.

Pepper must have seen something in the way he responded because she narrowed her eyes, the same way she used when she caught Tony being not completely truthful with her. Her voice was probing and empathetically demanding when she echoed her earlier question, "Is everything really okay, Peter?" Then her eyes widened and her voice raised in a bit of an alarm as she hurriedly asked, "Did something happen? Are you in pain?"

Peter shook his head immediately and added with urgency, "No…no...I'm okay Ms. Po – Pepper, I promise…I just…" He paused as he tried to figure out where he wanted to go with this and how much he really wanted to put on her plate. Which was of course nothing because he had already made his dad feel bad but at the same time, Peter desperately needed some direction.

Pepper took the decision away from him, when she assured him, "Whatever it is, Peter, you can tell me."

Peter looked up at her with concern before he winced and whispered, "I'm afraid he's really mad at me but he doesn't want to talk about it."

Pepper didn't hesitate. She laid her hand on the side of Peter's face and gave him a soft smile, her voice quiet and confident, "I can promise you he's not mad, Peter. Not at all. He was scared. We both were." Without question, Pepper realized what had happened, they must have talked. She knew that Peter had woken up, FRIDAY had told her as much and it was not a stretch to imagine whatever conversation they had was cut through with Tony's fear manifesting itself as anger. He was getting better but Pepper knew that when something really frightened him, all bets were off. At least, that's what she was going to go with until Peter told her anything different.

Peter glanced up at her in wide-eyed sorrow, forgetting that she had been there too, "I'm sorry."

The apology threw her off for a moment, she wasn't trying to ask for anything, she had just been speaking honestly, and she quickly explained, "Oh honey, you don't have to be sorry. I'm sure Tony already told you this but you just have to be careful. We both understand what you do and he, more than most people, understands why you do it, but you just have to make sure that you're as safe as you can be." She didn't expect to see Peter's frown deepen.

Without realizing why, that idea struck a cord with him and he felt himself explaining without any vague idea of where he was going with it. His voice was sad when he answered, "Yah he said that and I promised I would be but the more I thought about it...I just...I'm afraid that if I think too much about that, I won't be able to do what needs to be done to help someone." Peter didn't know where all these concerns were coming from, all he could assume was that this is what his mind had been stuck on while he was dozing and was unfortunately choosing now to tell him, and Pepper, about it.

Pepper was taken a bit aback. She hadn't thought of their warnings as any type of pressure, she had just assumed that they were doing the right thing in telling him to be careful. But Peter continued before she could respond.

Peter couldn't stop himself now as the words and concerns spilled out of him but he couldn't look at Pepper while he said it, his forlorn voice so far from the appreciation he wanted to show, "Its just because I have this ability to help people, that means that I end up in the situation that might hurt or kill them but if I'm constantly supposed to be careful and protect myself, how can I protect them? If I'm helping someone, that makes them more important than me because they didn't ask for that situation and it's up to me to keep anything bad from happening but everyone keeps telling me how important I am to them." Peter shook his head when that didn't come out right and he tried to correct it, "I'm not saying that I didn't know that people cared about me, just that I'm seeing how much pain I'm putting the people I love through." His shoulders slumped as much as they could and he asked, "How do I balance doing what's right and making sure that I'm careful too?" Only then could he meet her eyes, pleading for an answer that he was having trouble finding on his own.

Pepper stared at him and tried to understand what she could do to help him. He was right, everyone around him had been telling him to be careful and keep himself safe but that disregarded the selflessness that made him a hero. She realized she needed to know if he and Tony had talked and if they had, more about the conversation because obviously something was said to make this an issue. She looked up at him and quietly asked, "Did you talk to your dad at all about what happened?"

Peter nodded and dropped his eyes again.

Pepper knew immediately this stemmed from that conversation and she followed up with, "What did he say?"

Peter chewed his lip for a moment, he was trying to pull the message out of the fear and the anger and it took some time before he responded sheepishly, "He told me I'm not allowed to go out without backup anymore, without knowing that I can get in touch with someone if something happens. And that I have to make sure I'm careful because I'm important to him."

Pepper relaxed, she understood what Tony was trying to say. She laid her hand on the side of Peter's face again, just to make sure he was paying attention to what she was saying. When he looked her in the eyes, she explained steadily, "The first thing you need to remember is, and I know you know this but it bears repeating, that Tony knows and understands every risk of what you do and he's incredibly…insanely…proud of you." She paused and gave him a soft smile before she continued, "He also loves you very much…Which means that for Tony, those two things are constantly at war. He knows he can't, and never would, tell you to stop even though he would sometimes rather you just be a normal, safe teenager. That means the only thing he has is to continue to find ways to keep you safe." She dropped her hand when she realized she had his rapt attention. She glanced down at Morgan for just a moment before she continued in a more conversational tone, "Did you know he's designed at least forty suits for you? Most of them are just specs and the best ones are the ones you wear but he never stops designing things for you. Even with the nanotech, the first thing he built wasn't his own armor, Iron Spider was the first functional nanotech armor he had, he was going to give it to you on your birthday but then Thanos happened..." She trailed off as she brought up other painful memories.

Peter didn't know any of that. Sure he'd used all of his suits and he had seen many of the specs his dad had showed him but it hadn't been anywhere near that many. And he had no idea about the nanotech stuff, he had just assumed that was what Tony had left over from building his own suit. Still, Peter was too stunned by the information to say anything so he let Pepper continue.

Pepper saw the wheels turning in his head. There was a part of her that assumed Tony had told him most of this but given his reactions, she wasn't so sure that was the case. So she kept piling on her evidence, "Since you've been designing your own suits, his newest project was the communications array. I'm guessing he probably didn't tell you this but part of the reason for the update was to make the response times faster for an individual who calls for help. That's specifically for you since almost everyone else goes out in teams." She leaned forward as she saw the truth of that statement sink in, then she continued, "It's also meant to leave the some wiggle room for advanced tracking methods so if what happened to the two of you happens again, it won't take the team two weeks to find you. Tony framed it as an improvement to help everyone but it was for _you_." Pepper tried to bring some levity to the situation as her expression softened and her voice lilted a bit as she said, "Also, I'm pretty sure you're going to find a few more presents in your room, all of them will have some kind of tracker built in." She smirked as she said it and then became a bit more serious, "Tony's paranoid about something happening to you. And not because he thinks you can't handle it or that you shouldn't handle it but because if something happened that he could have prevented, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself."

Peter was trying to follow along with everything Pepper was saying and honestly it made sense. He knew that Tony worried about him and he knew that he understood exactly what he went through on a daily basis but at the same time, it just meant that his dad's paranoia was more of a reason for him to avoid increasingly dangerous situations. But he knew giving up Spider-Man, not helping people, not protecting those who needed it, would mean losing a huge part of himself. His brow furrowed as he tried to reconcile what Pepper was telling him, hanging on every word as she continued.

Pepper's serious tone continued as she tried to get Peter to understand exactly what Tony meant, "He knows what you're doing is dangerous and he knows that you can't stop and that he doesn't want you to have to, so his job is to make sure that you have the best chance possible of coming home." Her knowing smile dropped again, what she thought of was still painful but she explained, "Especially now, especially after what just happened." She leaned forward to emphasize her point, "Dangerous situations aren't the problem. The problem Tony is dealing with, is that the reason you almost died was because he didn't answer his phone. It was a stupid reason and one he could have easily prevented so his new rule is not to keep you from helping, it's to keep something preventable from killing you because that would destroy him." Pepper knew she didn't need to explain why, Peter knew exactly what she meant by that. She put her hand over his before she flicked her eyes over to her husband and then back, "You mean the world to him and he would never want you to change anything about yourself so when he says he wants you to be careful, to be safe, he means he will do everything in his power to make sure that's true. He's just asking that you use the everything he gives you."

Peter turned her words over and tried to figure out exactly what they meant. It did make a bit more sense when she laid it out that way because he understood so much of what she said. Of course he knew that Tony loved him, that he wanted him to be safe, but hearing Pepper tell him that it was about giving him the best chance at making it back made him feel better. Tony didn't want him to change, he just wanted him to be smart. He could do that. He could use what he had and be smart about what he did. That realization allowed some of the guilt that had been pooling in his stomach to dissipate. He could do what his dad wanted. If that's what he needed to help him feel better about all this, Peter know he could definitely do that. He sucked in a breath and held it before he let it out slowly and looked back up at her, "I can do that." Then he repeated with more confidence, "I can do that." It was like the words gave him a renewed sense of balance and his voice betrayed his relief when he said, "Thank you, Pepper."

Pepper gave him another soft smile before she answered, "You're welcome, Peter." Then she leaned forward and patted his hand once more before she whispered, "I'm very proud of you too." Then she sat back, seeing the surprise and slight embarrassment in his eyes, she deftly changed the subject, "So, are you ready for your trip?"

There was a mirth to her gaze that pulled Peter out of his nervousness as he answered excitedly, "Not quite yet but we're getting together…" Then he paused as his expression dropped into a slight frown and he asked, "Wait, what's today?"

Pepper gave him a sad, knowing look when she said, "Its Saturday evening."

Peter's saddened expression grew when he asked sheepishly, "How long do I have to be in here?"

Pepper realized what he had been going to say about his friends and she was apologetic but firm in her answer, "At least until tomorrow afternoon, honey. You were too hurt this time for them to let you leave early like you usually do."

Peter frowned as tears inexplicably gathered in his eyes and even if they didn't fall, there was a thickness to his voice that emphasized that he knew just how bad it had been when he asked, "Do you think dad would be okay with them coming to the Compound? Something tells me I'm not going to be able to meet them on time tomorrow."

Pepper shook her head and smiled a bit at the request, "No I don't think you'll make that one but I don't see why he wouldn't, they've been here before, haven't they?"

Peter nodded hesitantly before he elaborated, "Ned's been here a few times and MJ's been here once when she brought me some homework but Betty hasn't been here yet."

Pepper was quick to assure him though, "I'm sure he'd be fine with it, its not like you don't know what you're doing. The only thing to think about is that most of the team is going to be here through next week. You might want to warn either them or your friends or you know at least Clint and Scott are going to find ways to 'happen' to come by your room."

Peter didn't realize that, he knew that Natasha and Steve had some stuff to deal with so they were here but he didn't think he would see the others for at least a few weeks. He scrunched his face up a bit when she said that and asked, "Really? Why's everyone here?"

Pepper shrugged before she responded, "I'm not sure, Tony said there's a JSOC meeting later in the week but to be honest, I'm not sure why they would need everyone for that."

As if he had been waiting for them to turn the conversation to more positive matters, the subject of their conversation groaned and shifted a bit as he woke up. Tony's arms tightened slightly around Peter before he winked his eyes open. Almost immediately a smile grew on his face when he saw his family and he looked genuinely happy when he croaked out, "Mornin'."

Pepper smiled brightly back and then added with some sarcasm, "It's not really morning anymore Tony, it's close to five in the evening."

Tony shrugged noncommittally before he answered, "Still morning to me." Then he looked down at Peter and his expression vaguely changed as the concern that was still lingering at the back of his mind caused the wrinkles around his eyes to crinkle just a little more and his smile to slip just a bit, it was almost as if he was preparing himself for something bad when he asked, "How're you feelin', Pete?"

Peter saw the changes in his dad's expression and he hated the fact that he was the cause of it. He _knew_ Tony had the lingering images of their fight or his…death…or something equally terrible and that it was his fault. He hurried to smile and tried to ignore the persistent pain in his chest and side when he said, "I'm better, dad. Promise." That seemed to be enough because Peter saw those lines of concern lessen and his dad hugged him before he whispered, "Good."

Pepper watched the loaded interaction with her own growing concern. She knew that Tony was going to have problems with what had happened, he was Tony, but she also knew that what Peter said here mattered immensely. When she saw Tony's shoulders relax and heard the relief in his voice after Peter responded, she knew it would be okay.

Then Morgan stole the room's tense attention. He looked between Peter, Tony, and Pepper before he looked back at the bed and stretched his hands out in front of him, demanding, "Dada…Pedee…"

Pepper looked up at Tony with a questioning glance before he nodded and she carefully laid the baby next to Tony on the bed. Morgan didn't seem interested in laying still though because he used Tony's stomach to lever himself up so he was sitting and facing Peter, his bright blue eyes shining. Peter waggled his fingers at him again and said "Hey Morgan", knowing how much he loved the game. And true to form, Morgan snatched at Peter's fingers and pulled until Peter moved them closer. When he did, Morgan shoved them in his mouth and cooed happily, slobbering just a little and smiling happily at his dad and brother. Tony watched the interaction and then realized something, looking down at Peter he asked, "Are you hungry, Pete? Apparently we missed breakfast…and lunch…and possibly dinner at this rate and I think Morgan has the right idea."

Before Peter could even nod in agreement, his stomach growled. He glanced back up at his dad with a sheepish smile, "Yah I guess I am."

Tony looked down at him expectantly but when Peter didn't say anything else, he prompted, "So, what'd you want?"

Peter took as second to think about it before he answered, "Swarma?"

"Done." He said immediately before he looked over at Pepper. When she nodded as well, Tony looked up and said, "FRIDAY, order our usual."

Dinner ordered, the room fell into comfortable small talk as attentions were torn between the baby on the bed and the need to just be together. After about an hour, when Tony got up to get the food, it seemed to be the code for the rest of the Avengers because those who were around slowly filtered in after him while the family ate. The extended family entertained themselves until Peter started to nod off, falling more and more completely into Tony's side. Once that happened, they found reasons to say goodnight and filter out until finally Pepper and Morgan followed, leaving just Peter and Tony in the room.

Before he felt comfortable leaving, Tony knew he needed to satisfy his rampant, paranoid, curiosity one more time so he quietly asked, "Are you sure you're okay, Pete?"

Peter nodded and gave him a tired smile, "I am, dad, my side still hurts but compared to everything that happened, I think I got away easy with that."

Tony waited to see if there was any downside or negative coming but when his son didn't say anything else, Tony agreed with a relieved sigh, "Yah I'd say you did."

Peter reveled in his dad's composure for just a minute more before he asked, "Can I ask something?"

Tony felt just a little apprehension build at that question but given everything that had already happened, he realized that there literally couldn't be anything worse than what he had already dealt with in the last twenty-four hours so he said, "Sure, shoot."

Peter felt a little embarrassed asking but did anyway, "I was supposed to meet, MJ, Ned, and Betty in the city tomorrow so we could talk about the trip but Pepper said I have to stay here at least until tomorrow afternoon so I was wondering…" Peter trailed off as he tried to figure out the right way to ask, he had never actually asked for multiple friends to come over to the Compound before. And only MJ and Ned knew about his and Tony's relationship and the whole Spider-Man thing. It might be a little weird to explain to Betty about having a room there and then he started to panic a bit. Maybe he shouldn't finish that question.

But Tony knew where he was going, so he finished the question when Peter hesitated, "Do you want to see if they want to come over here?"

Peter's confidence had fled and he balked a bit on the answer, stuttering out, "I don't know…that's what I was going to ask but…Betty's coming. She only knows that I have the internship with you, she doesn't know any of the other stuff."

Tony shrugged as he responded, "So? You can take them to one of the meeting rooms in the front, just tell me what you need and I'll have someone move it there." He threw his hand up in front of them before he continued, "Text your friends and let them know that I needed you to help me with something and I, being the terrible boss that I am, am making you stay here until it's done."

Peter narrowed his eyes, appreciating the ridiculousness of that suggestion as he answered back sarcastically, "Dad, that doesn't make sense, what terrible boss would give an intern the ability to use one of the conference rooms?"

Tony shrugged again as he tried to come up with an answer, "The kind who really wanted to avoid a lawsuit…for making minors work too long hours?"

"Yah, that's ridiculous." Peter answered with flat sarcasm, even as his lips turned up at the corners.

But then it was Tony's turn, slapping on an incredulous look and narrowed eyes, he asked carefully, "Wait, if Betty doesn't know about anything, who did you tell her is paying for the trip?" He had his son and he knew it, this answer was going to be more ridiculous than what he had just said.

"I kind of told her I won it at an internship retreat…" Peter shrugged, trying to play off the obviously insane explanation.

Tony just started laughing before he calmed down enough to ask, "She really thinks I just happen to give out all expenses paid, four person trips to Europe to my interns for prizes? Scratch what I said earlier, I'm not a terrible boss, I'm the best."

Peter smiled at that and turned his nose up, sarcastically adding, "Yah, you're the best."

Tony pulled back, his hand on his chest, "I'm wounded Pete, that hurt." Then he said again, "Text your friends, tell them they can come here and I'll get you set up in one of the front rooms, you'll have an awesome view." Then without leaving space for a response, he sat down on the bed, pulled Peter under his arm, and pressed a kiss to the top of his head, lingering in a hug for just a minute before he let him go and stood up again, "I'll come break you out tomorrow before they get here. I'm guessing the other point is to hide most of this from them?"

Peter dropped his gaze to the bed and his voice fell with his gaze, "Yah it is, at least as much as I can."

Tony laid his hand on his son's shoulder before he answered, "Pete, it's okay that you don't tell them everything…but it might not be a bad idea to let them in on some of it." Tony gave Peter a soft smile before he added, "But even if you don't, you've always got me and the rest of your family."

Peter allowed a small smile, "I know, dad."

Tony patted his shoulder before he took a step back from the bed and explained, "Good, then I'm going to leave you to sleep and I'm going to catch a few winks of my own. Those beds aren't bad but I'm thinking that I might need something with a little more back support, especially because someone seems to hate the pillows, no matter what I buy."

Peter scrunched his face a bit at that but wasn't quite sure of what retort to make, Tony was right after all, he appreciated the comfort that came with having his dad so close. He couldn't lie about that. Instead he just shrugged.

Tony couldn't help it, he recognized the vulnerability in Peter's response and he was compelled to match it as he leaned over and wrapped his son in another tight hug, whispering, "I get it, kid. Trust me...I get it." After another long moment, he stood up, his voice much more carefree as he threw out, "Now go to sleep."

Peter jerked his head back in surprise and incredulously asked, "Did you just give me a bedtime?"

Tony threw his hands out with a shrug before he responded, "Maybe? Would you rather have something to work on?" He turned on his heel as he exaggeratedly looked around for something, then he continued in mock distraction, "I'm sure I can find something around here."

And in one of the rare instances of his life, Peter was too tired to think about anything so he just scrunched his face at Tony and huffed, "I'm good, dad."

Tony clapped his hands together when he heard that and added in a triumphant voice, "Good, then I'm reiterating what I said before…get…some…sleep." He stepped up to the door and pulled it open, his hand falling to rest on the light switch before he turned once more and grabbed Peter's attention with a slight cough. His voice rang with sincerity and affection when he said, "I love you, Pete, don't forget that."

Peter shot him a wide smile before he returned the sentiment, "Love you too, dad."

Tony gave him that soft smile that he only reserved for moments that were too pure or good for him to ruin with a quip. It was a smile that was only directed at Pepper and his kids, a few others had seen it, but only a select three were on the receiving end. Tony held his gaze for a moment longer before he flicked the lights off and called out, "Go to sleep, Pete or I'm going to tell all your friends embarrassing stories." The door snapped shut behind him.

Peter didn't last much longer after that. He fell asleep with the warm comfort in his chest that nothing but security and love can provide.

* * *

**So that's it for this story minus the epilogue, I wanted to make sure I did something for this one because I'm going to have to take some time off when I'm done with this story :) Plus, Far From Home is coming out soon and I keep watching the trailers and I'm getting really sad so I need something with a little fluffiness to it. **

**Also, just a note for something I wrote here, I said that Tony made nanotech armor for Peter first because at the end of Homecoming it looks like he has Iron Spider ready to go and when that armor deploys at the beginning of Infinity War, it crawls like Bleeding Edge, not to mention the fact that it can create arms and other protective features that seem to manifest like some of Tony's weapons. So, to me that means that the first nanotech Tony actually made was for Peter not for himself. And the whole birthday thing is just because he calls is 17A which in my humble opinion (like the rest of this ridiculous theory) is because Tony was going to give him the armor for his seventeenth birthday.**

**That's enough of my ramblings, thank you to anyone who read this far :)**

**I hope you all have a wonderful day/night and stay creative!**

**-Lily**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey everyone,**

**So this is the last chapter for this story! I'm still a little surprised at how long this story ended up, I hadn't planned it to be this long but that is usually how things end up. So this chapter is really fluffy because I saw Endgame again and honestly I needed fluffy :)**

**As has become my tradition, thank you to:**

**\- the wonderful Proud Hollander, First things first, I super glad your mom is SO AWESOME! It's really cool that she's letting you leave school early to go see Far From Home and I'm totally hoping that its as good as I'm imagining it in my mind. At the same time, I'm so sorry about the people at your school :( You're kind of totally awesome so I'm glad you have fandoms, there are some really cool people in them :). I'm really glad you've enjoyed the story and that it hasn't gotten repetitive, that's always a huge danger for me whenever multiple characters don't know what happened. And if you want, you should totally try writing, I bet you could come up with some awesome stories of your own :) I hope you enjoy Far From Home!**

**\- the exceptional lotravengersninjago.15 (I had to change your name a little because it kept deleting it but I hope this works!), Thank you so much for saying that! I'm glad the characters are in character and that you enjoy the story! You are totally awesome for taking the time to write a review :)**

**\- the awesome JohnGilbertVampirehunter, I'm glad you liked those elements to the story :) I had to throw in the Shawarma thing, I thought about Thai but really wanted to do something from another movie, I appreciate that you caught it!**

**\- the fantastic MayaTanner18, I know! That's my problem too, I watched Sherlock Holmes the other day and I realized that even as the iconic detective, he is now - and will forever be - Tony Stark. And I'm totally okay with that :)**

**Thank you all so much, you are wonderful and I hope you enjoy this last chapter!**

**Warning Here: If you don't want anything fluffy, stop with chapter 4. Here's your warning, stop reading now!**

**If you do want to keep reading, I hope you this chapter satisfies that fluffy need :)**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Peter bounced nervously on the balls of his feet.

This was uncharted territory so all he could do was promise himself that he wasn't going to trip or do anything stupid as he walked the decent distance to his seat. Which he still couldn't see. As he stood there waiting, he realized it was dumb for him to be nervous and he tried repeating that to himself a few times only to quietly huff in frustration when it didn't even start to work.

He wasn't sure why he felt nervous, he was one in a crowd of more than three hundred and he knew that but he still did. And he couldn't help but wish he had his mask. But he didn't. And he couldn't. Instead, he adjusted the black gown, straightened his cap, and listened for the slightly too loud music.

Then the person in front of him started to move and without thinking about it, Peter followed.

As he stepped into the spotlight, he couldn't help but look up at where he knew the audience was, even though he saw absolutely nothing but blinding light. He forgot his nervousness as he tried to force his vision passed the lights to scan the crowd. He relied on his senses to get him down the stairs. Tony had told him he would be there with Pepper and May but Peter wasn't totally sure if he made it, especially given all the attention it would draw. But if the lights stayed this bright, he would have no idea if he was there at all. Then he stepped down onto the stairs and the glare of the bright lights was slightly less blinding. That was when he caught a pinprick of green cutting through the darkness of the crowd. It hit him square in the chest and for a moment, it actually kind of frightened him but he followed its direction as he stepped down off the steps and completely out of the light. Once his eyes adjusted, he caught sight of a beaming Tony Stark sandwiched between an equally ecstatic May and Pepper. Peter felt a stupid smile break across his face and he kept it until he was able to sit down. He tried to turn around and find them again, only to have the laser show up on the back of the head of the kid in the seat in front of him. For a split second, Peter thought about texting his dad to stop but as he turned around and caught sight of them, Tony turned the laser off anyway. Peter waved and smiled until the row behind him blocked his family.

When the last of the opening music died away and his principal stood up to give his opening remarks to the graduating class, Peter felt the odd butterflies completely disappear. Now all that was left was to pick up his diploma, that was the easy part. Of course that also meant making it through all the other stuff that went along with graduation.

* * *

In the middle of the first speech, Peter's phone vibrated against his leg.

He tried to ignore it, assuming it was just Ned complaining about the inaccurate comparison the speaker had just made to one of the Star Wars movies. Honestly, Peter was only half listening.

But then it buzzed again.

And again.

And again.

By the fifth time, Peter pulled out his phone with the express purpose to turning it off when he realized only one of the texts was from Ned, the others were from his dad. Peter scoffed as he realized that Iron Man had the attention span of a small child and was already texting him about how ridiculously cliché the speeches were. Peter started to tell him that this was going to be a long ceremony if he was saying that halfway through the second speech but decided against it, instead commenting back.

That conversation lasted until the passing out of the diplomas started and if Peter was being honest, it definitely made it go a lot faster. And he quietly laughed when he swore he heard Pepper scolding Tony a few times for laughing and having his phone out during the speeches.

Picking up his diploma was easy although he definitely took the diploma with the wrong hand which left him awkwardly shaking hands with his principal. It was momentarily embarrassing but nothing that some of the other students didn't do and he managed to get his picture taken and get back down the steps without tripping or losing his hat. So, all in all, not a bad showing.

By the time the final sounds of the alma mater played, Peter realized that his graduation ceremony was officially over, he was leaving high school. It was a weird feeling, not too long ago he had just assumed he was going to be gone before his sophomore year was even over. But then things had changed and he had stayed. Now high school actually was over. And he was going to be going off to college...

As the contemplation of endings ran through his head, Peter followed the flood of people out into the lobby only to have those fleeting thoughts overtaken by the exuberance of his classmates and his immediate need to find his friends and wait for his family.

It took some time to find everyone but he eventually did. MJ, Ned, and Betty were easy to find but not nearly as easy as May, Tony, and Pepper. People had started mobbing Tony and Pepper as soon as they left the auditorium and it left May to clear a path through the adoring crowd and only with a miracle did they make it to the clustered group of Peter's friends.

The small group took pictures and mingled for a while until May dragged Peter and the other recent graduates away for pictures with others. Pepper followed her, leaving Tony on his own.

* * *

Tony had known Michelle for a few years now and never once had he ever seen her nervous, until now. She was standing across the crowded lobby staring at him in her intense, oftentimes intimidating, way but it wasn't her normal scrutiny, it looked more like she was trying to convince herself to talk to him. Tony snickered at that thought, MJ wasn't afraid to talk to anyone, regardless of who they were. But here she was, feet planted, gaze firmly fixed on him while he talked to the recent graduates clustered in a ring around him, all trying to angle for his attention. Peter had left him to take pictures with May so here he was, on his own. And his wandering gaze kept coming back to Michelle. It was good he was able to multitask because he wanted to watch this. So he kept an eye on her while he went back to entertaining the newest adult generation. It took about five more minutes before he saw her start to move in his direction.

He tracked her movement and when she made it to the circle, he continued what he was saying, just to see what she would do. True to form, she interrupted him.

Michelle was nervous but swallowed her worries and stepped into the circle, "Tony, can I talk to you for a minute?"

For years, he couldn't even get Peter to call him "Tony", it always amazed him how easily his son's girlfriend managed to do it. He turned to her with a raised eyebrow and couldn't resist messing with her just a little more, "Hold on a sec MJ, I was just telling…" he looked over at the student who had asked him something, waiting for the kid to supply the name.

But Michelle stepped in first, cutting off the clearly nervous former student and answering bluntly, "His name is Eric." Then she leaned back into her trademark confidence and added, "And I get you're talking but I need to talk to you."

Tony heard the seriousness in her tone that time and he felt kind of guilty for trying to mess with her. He dropped the smirk and the bravado, instead just replying, "Yah okay." And when she turned and headed to what he assumed was some kind of quieter place, Tony followed.

She led him into some kind of ready room, he assumed it was where the speakers or maybe even the graduates had gotten prepared so there wasn't anyone milling about at the time. She turned to face him and planted her feet, arms held ready at her sides.

Tony strode in, closed the door, and clapped his hands, before addressing the reason he had followed her into this rather strange room, "Is everything alright?" In the split second between his question and the response he expected, he thought of something completely inappropriate and bit his tongue to keep from saying it. Then to his surprise, tears welled up in her eyes and, again, he couldn't help question what the hell had happened. Maybe he wasn't as far off with his inappropriateness as he had thought…

Michelle cleared her throat and took a step forward before she raised her chin. She held his gaze but her voice betrayed her nervousness, "Peter, he…he told me what happened and I wanted to say thank you for what you did."

Tony tried to give her a disarming smile but it faltered and then he tripped over his response, "It…uh…yah…" Frustrated by his apparent inability to speak, Tony dropped his shoulders and surrendered, "I'm assuming we're talking about the same thing?"

"Pretty sure we are." She responded, pressing her lips into a line and nodding a bit before she continued, a significant bite to her response, "Unless there's another time he's died and didn't tell me about it."

"Right," Tony started trying to gather his thoughts, "Well…" He tried to come up with something to make this easy but that response wasn't forming and eventually he just dropped his hands to his side, his shoulders falling a little farther as he sighed and said honestly, "I didn't have a choice…so it's not really something to thank me for."

Michelle cocked her head and narrowed her eyes almost as though she was trying to look through him and then she offered something completely unexpected, "You did have a choice and you choose to save him so that is worthy of a thank you." She dropped her eyes for just a moment before she looked up and grabbed his gaze again, her voice hard, pragmatic, "I don't know if Peter has told you much about my family but my dad left at the beginning of high school and my mom is…not so good at the caring part of parenting so when I hear you, a person who I _know_ has no legal or biological responsibility to him, say you didn't have a choice…in that tone, I need to tell you that you did and it means something that you made the choice you did. It means a lot, Tony."

Tony was dumbfounded by this young woman. Then he realized he saw a lot of Pepper in her. She was obviously tough and she had the ability to hold it together even if she wanted nothing more than to fall apart. He had a striking realization that he was seeing a vulnerability a precious few people saw and he tried to value that. He dipped his head in embarrassment at the feelings that were currently swirling around the room started by the unfamiliar person standing in front of him and he balked. He didn't even notice when she stepped forward until he saw her black Converse even with his impeccably shined dress shoes. When he looked up, she was intently staring at him.

Michelle nodded a couple of times, her lips still pressed into that straight line before she said, "Also you should stop with the self-deprecation when it comes to caring for your kids, not everyone is as good as it as you are."

Tony saw the flash of pain in her eyes before it was gone, hidden behind the stony exterior, the small cracks that had let it through already puttied over, hidden. Tony swallowed hard as he tried to wrap his head around the unexpectedly emotional conversation. It took him longer than he wanted to figure out what he needed to say and then it hit him. In a retort to her last piece of advice, Tony issued some of his own, "And you should stop hiding so much." He took a little pride in the fact that she tucked her head back, her eyes widening, and obvious surprise breaking across her face at the statement. He took that for what it was before he continued, "There are few people who can deal with someone who does what Peter does. I should know, it took me years to figure out exactly how lucky I was to have Pepper." He couldn't help but smile, it was so true. Then he took a breath and continued, "I'm guessing Peter is much more aware than I was though." Then in a first, Tony watched Michelle blush slightly, her eyes dipping to the ground.

She quietly responded, "He is."

When she didn't say anything else, Tony continued, "It takes an incredible amount of strength and sacrifice on your part to care about him because he relies on that more than you can ever know. What he does is not something that can be done long term without support because this life sucks." Tony felt his eyes widen at his own honesty, it was true but he was kind of surprised he was telling her. Still he continued, "And he talks about you a lot so I know how much you mean to him and how much you actually do for him. You are a remarkable person, Michelle. Pete is lucky to have you." He saw the tears pool in her eyes, even though they didn't fall.

Their conversation dropped there and silence blanketed the room, buoyed by the continuous hum of dulled conversations outside the room. Tony was assuming that meant the conversation was over but Michelle wasn't making any real move to leave. Instead, she stood there and stared, gaze alternating between him and the far wall. Tony assumed she was just collecting herself before they left. Then her quiet voice broke the droning background voices that had filtered into the room.

Michelle's voice was quiet but completely audible when she asked, "Did it hurt?"

Tony had not been expecting a deep question and it caught him off guard. He responded absentmindedly, needing clarification, "I'm sorry?"

Michelle looked at him then and her voice was stronger when she clarified what she wanted to know, "What happened to him, did it hurt? He won't tell me. I know it should have, I've read enough to know what different injuries can do but he won't let me help him with that."

Tony paused as he looked at the young woman before him, she always seemed to value honesty and he didn't want to lie to her but he couldn't help but be a little flippant, "Okay first, stop reading about that, it can't make good conversation." But then he saw the scowl break across her face and realized he should actually answer, he dropped his shoulders and explained, "By the time he made it back to the Compound I think he was already pretty numb so no, I don't think it hurt. That being said, I know it hurt him after but I think a lot of that was my fault." Why he was being _so_ honest with this young woman he would never know, he would chalk it up to the fact that Peter trusted her implicitly.

She frowned when he said that and she responded, almost to herself, "That's not what I meant. CPR usually results in bruised or broken ribs, so you shouldn't feel guilty for that…" She trailed off as her eyes welled up again, the pain clear in her words.

Tony frowned as her pain touched something incredibly fragile in his own chest and he explained, "You should stop thinking about it. It won't help." He fought to keep himself in the room, in the conversation with her as he pressed the memories of so many gut-wrenching injuries back into the nightmare box they were attempting to batter their way out of.

Michelle was nothing if she wasn't adamant though and she pressed, "But I want to know. I _need_ to know."

Unfortunately for her, Tony was just as stubborn and he started shaking his head before he responded with conviction, "No, you don't. Trust me Michelle, knowing when and how badly he gets hurt does not help with anything. The thing that helps is being there to help him deal with the aftermath."

She nodded thoughtfully and then she asked, "That's what you do?"

Tony nodded, even while he swallowed back bile, he had been there way too many times for that. Still he needed to elaborate, "Yah. Although, a lot of times I'm there for the pain too."

Michelle frowned at that description but her reply demonstrated a different take on that information, "But that's because you can help him with it."

"Most times, yah." Tony paused as he tried to figure out how to summarize his role in all this craziness, what came out wasn't exactly applicable, but it worked, "I'll do anything I can to protect him and I'm hoping he knows that by now..." Tony was going to say more but he was shocked into silence when the young, standoffish woman lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him in a quick hug, whispering, "He does". Then as quickly as she had pounced, she pulled back, her eyes trained on the ground for a few minutes. Tony was left reeling.

Then she spoke again, the same quiet conviction she had shown through this entire conversation, "How do you do it? How do you deal with seeing him like that?" As she finished her question, the tears that she had forced behind her walls finally betrayed her, a few rolling down her cheeks.

Tony shrugged, "I don't know. I just know I have to, so I do. I don't think there's any real rational behind it other than that."

She nodded her acceptance of that and Tony watched her physically collect herself. She was done with the tears and Tony couldn't avoid the quiet part of him that appreciated that. As she silently recovered, Tony was finally able to think and something about what she had been saying, and what Peter had wanted, occurred to him. He narrowed his eyes at her even as his own walls solidified and he asked, "Did you figure this out or did he tell you what happened?"

She shrugged, "We, Ned, Betty, Peter, and I, were supposed to meet on Sunday to talk about graduation and the trip but Peter texted us late Saturday to see if we could meet at the Compound instead." She paused for a moment as she tried to decide on something before she added, "I don't think we saw you, Peter said you had a meeting or something you had to go to. Anyway, him changing plans like that isn't weird but it was a little late. I just figured he had to do something with his suit. But on Sunday, I got there before the others and noticed he was moving funny. Leaning to the left, being really careful of his chest, that type of stuff. That's not weird either," Michelle scrunched her face up when she realized how actually strange it was to say her boyfriend normally acted like he had been beat up, but she didn't comment on it, just continued her story, "I just figured he had a hard night on Saturday but then we were looking some stuff up for the trip and I was reaching for something when I accidentally elbowed him in the stomach." She shot Tony a look that was wracked with guilt but she continued before he could say anything, "He doubled over and barely pushed me back." She shook her head in remembrance before she explained, "He's never pushed me before, not even in a joking way. He says he could hurt me if he did, and honestly, I fell off my chair so I completely believe him."

Tony straightened at that, Peter was incredibly strong and he could have seriously hurt her but she looked okay and he didn't want to interrupt.

Michelle noticed Tony's sudden, concerned attention when she said that Peter had pushed her and for some reason, she knew exactly what he was thinking and she explained, "He didn't hurt me, it was just a light tap and I had a bruise but nothing life threatening…" She winced at her chosen words and then pushed passed it, "Once I got over the shock of it, I made him tell me what was going on." She swallowed hard and dropped Tony's gaze as she ground out the last of her story, "He showed me the…stitches but that didn't explain why he was being so careful in general so I bothered him until he showed me the bruising too. Even with how much they had healed, I could tell they were hand prints and the deeper bruises sat in a pattern over his ribs. I could guess what happened…I told you I've read about this." She chewed on her lip for a moment before she looked back up at him and finished, "I made him tell me everything that happened and then I asked for corroboration. FRIDAY refused to show me anything but she backed up what Peter had said." A fierce honesty shone in her gaze as she said, "I don't think I've ever been so truly scared or as truly thankful in my life. I knew I would see you tonight so I wanted to make sure I said thank you."

Tony just stared at her wide-eyed and managed to squeak out, "Oh" after she was finished. She fixed him with that knowing gaze again as if she was waiting for a bit more elaboration. To end the awkward silence, Tony sighed and tactlessly said, "I'm sorry he told you as much as he did." He frowned as soon as it left his mouth.

But the skeleton of her confidence was there as she retorted, "I'm not. I just wish he would have told me without me bothering him for it first."

Tony scrubbed his hand over his face, he knew exactly why Peter was hiding it and for a moment, he thought about not saying anything, he didn't have a right to mess around with his son's relationships. But the look on Michelle's face, the lack of confidence he saw hiding behind the strength was jarring and he couldn't help but start talking, "Look, Michelle, what I'm about to tell you…I'm not trying to lecture you here, or tell you how to feel, or anything but…here goes..." He took a deep breath and continued, "Take it from someone who has also actively hidden painful injuries from people who are important. Peter knows how he's making you feel when he tells you even a fraction of what he goes through. He knows it's making you upset, angry, heartbroken, whatever word you want to use to describe it, he knows what it's doing to you. And he doesn't want you to feel that way because of him. Knowing you do hurts him and makes it harder for him to focus on what he needs to do. But even with all…even knowing all that…he can't stop because it's who he is and without it, he wouldn't be him." Tony paused as he watched the gears turn in her head but when she didn't say anything, he continued, "He'll tell you if he has to but you have to be willing to accept that you're not going to know everything about what he's doing. Not yet. And sometimes he's doing that to protect you and sometimes he does it to protect himself. But you have to know that you are incredibly important to him and he trusts you completely. Having that support, knowing that he can tell you anything when he's finally dealt with it himself, means more than anything."

She was quiet for a long time until eventually she found his gaze and spoke again, "Thank you for that, Tony. I appreciate the honesty." Michelle paused before she replied with something resembling her normal confidence, "You should know that your help and support means a lot too." She gave him an unenthusiastic smile that was still shining through with understanding and appreciation.

Tony chewed on that for a good minute before he simply said, "Thank you."

Then without a word in agreement, they both turned and headed to the door.

* * *

As they stepped out of the ready room, Tony watched as Michelle collected herself, straightening her shoulders and fixing her gaze into some much more intimidating. He marveled at her, that was her defense mechanism and she wore it proudly. Still, he couldn't help but lay a hand on her shoulder and when her head whipped up to the look at him, he caught the flash of vulnerability and trust he had seen before. They made it back to the main gaggle of celebrating students when Peter, smiling stupidly with Pepper, May, Ned, and a woman Tony was assuming was Ned's mom, caught their attention. Tony saw Peter's smile slip when he caught sight of their seriousness. But as soon as Tony and Michelle got close enough, Peter reached out and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. She let him for just a minute, leaning into the hold before she smirked up at him and pulled herself free before wrapping him in a hug of her own. Peter held her but glanced up at Tony. Tony could see the wheels in his son's head turning and instead of freaking him out, Tony just shot him a smile. That seemed to placate Peter for the moment because he smiled back even as his eyes flicked between the two of them a few more times. They would be having a conversation later, Tony was sure of it, but it wasn't necessary right now.

But for right now, he was going to enjoy himself. He stepped in close as May pulled out her phone again. As soon as the pictures were finally done, Tony turned to May and Peter, a look on his face that Peter couldn't quite read, "Ready to head back to the Compound?"

Peter narrowed his eyes at the suggestion and asked, "Tonight? I just figured we would go home and I could come up tomorrow."

But Tony gave him a vaguely mischievous smirk as he responded, "Nope, we're going tonight. Come on, Happy's got the car."

Peter glanced up at May who had an equally unreadable expression on her face and for a moment, he felt that feeling in the pit of his stomach, the one that he got right before his spidey senses tingled, only this time the warning never came. So Peter narrowed his eyes at Tony but couldn't quite figure out what was going on, only moving after his dad threw his arm around his shoulders and started dragging him in the direction of the car.

Then Tony called over to the small group of Peter's friends, "Ned, MJ, Betty come on, your parents said it's fine."

* * *

They took the elevator up to the private floors and Peter almost couldn't deal with the increasing anxiety, he still had no idea what was going on and Ned bouncing from foot to foot was not helping. Neither was Michelle's stoic expression. Betty just looked a little confused, the only time she had been in the Compound had been in the front conference room so this was definitely different. May had a smirk on her face and Peter couldn't see Tony without awkwardly glancing up because he still had his arm wrapped tightly around his shoulders.

As the doors opened, Peter tried to take in everything at once. The first thing he noticed was the crowd of Avengers standing in the middle of the team living room yelling "surprise" and "congratulations" at the top of their lungs. Then he definitely caught the colored streamers and obnoxious decorations that spelled out the achievement of leaving high school with the subtleness of middle schoolers. That was all the farther he got and given the smiles that greeted him from the gathered Avengers, he was definitely caught off guard by the whole display.

Tony clapped him on the shoulder then and whispered, "Congrats, Pete."

Peter felt the arm fall away then and he was pushed into the living room where the four graduates were quickly swept into the sea of questions and congratulations from the bulk of the assembled Avengers. There were snacks and games already set up. And Ned hit Peter on the shoulder, a look of disbelief on his face as he whispered, "Dude, this is the greatest day of my life." And that was it, Peter was pulled into the excitement of his friends and the joviality of the atmosphere.

Tony watched as a smile cracked across Peter's face and he quickly slipped into the excitement radiating around him. Then someone slid up next to him and laid their hand on his arm. Tony looked over to see May, watching the same scene he was with a broad smile on her beautiful face.

May met Tony's gaze and moved her arm around his shoulders before whispering, "Thank you for this, Tony. And thank you for everything you have done for him."

Tony gave her a sheepish smile, unable to find a quip or a response that would keep the gratitude from making him feel uncomfortable. That was one thing he had never actually gotten used to with this family. Any time they said thank you, they meant it with so much more depth than what Tony had known for most of his life. Tony looked at her and glanced at Peter for a moment before he looked her in the eyes and said, "He makes it easy. And I'm thinking he has you to thank for that."

May brightened at that response, understanding the gratitude and complement behind it. But she also realized how uncomfortable she had made Tony, she knew she could push it but decided to let him enjoy the party. Instead, she patted his shoulder and dropped her hand, following the kids into the throng.

Pepper stepped up beside him then and pushed his back gently without a word. Tony shot her a smile, grabbed her hand, and pulled her with him, following May.

* * *

Peter had just gotten his ass handed to him at Mysterium when he saw his dad sitting on the couch, watching the party with a smile. He decided now was his time to talk to him about the craziness currently happening in their living room. He plopped down on the couch next to Tony and, while still watching the group, asked, "Was this your idea?"

Tony shook his head before he threw his arm across the cushions, "Actually, I had nothing to do with this. They were hurt they didn't get invited to your graduation so they figured this would be the next best thing."

Peter missed the joking tone in his voice and snapped his eyes to Tony's with a look of horror as he quickly explained, "I only got four tickets, I couldn't…not everyone could…"

"Pete, relax, they knew that, that was a joke. Also I wouldn't have wanted them to come anyway. Pepper and me drew enough attention, I almost can't imagine what it would have been like if everyone else had showed up." Tony kicked his feet up on the table as he chuckled at the image. It definitely would have been entertaining to see them sit through the speakers. Then his voice took on a tender quality as he asked, "So are you having fun?"

Peter glanced over to where his friends were playing board games with Natasha, Clint, and Scott and couldn't help but smile. Looking back up at his dad, he contentedly answered, "Yah, I am."

Then Tony let out some of his concern, asking, "It's not weird?"

Peter looked up at him with confusion, "What'd you mean?"

Tony shrugged before he answered, "I almost told them not to do it. I know you said that Betty didn't know about all this but I didn't think it was fair to just not invite her so I told them to come up with a different time, that way it could just be us. But they insisted. Eventually, I figured I could just beg for your forgiveness if you got mad." Tony shot him a sincere but loaded smile.

Peter stared at him with a smile before he explained, "I'm glad they did it, this is awesome and I think Ned is geeking out more than I've ever seen and he's been here, a few times. It's kind of impressive actually." Peter leaned into his dad's side then, showing his own silence appreciation and allowing Tony to wrap his arm around Peter's shoulders. After a few moment, Peter whispered, "Thanks for coming to my graduation. You didn't have to do that…"

Tony pulled back at bit, his voice incredulous, "Are you serious? Of course I did."

Peter looked up at him with a slight scowl, "Dad, I just sat through those speakers too and I read all your texts, you totally didn't have to come."

Tony smirked and said, "Ahh, they weren't that bad."

Peter used that moment to ask about something else on his mind, trying to catch his dad off guard, "So what were you and MJ talking about?"

But Tony had been prepared for that from the moment his son had come over, answering, "Uh…I think that's something you should ask her about."

Peter groaned before he plead, "Dad, come on…"

"Nope, not this time, Pete." Tony said with a note of finality. "If you want to know what we talked about, you're gonna have to ask the person who initiated it and that was her, not me." When Peter narrowed his eyes at the response, Tony continued, "I'm serious, Pete. You should ask her about it, it would probably be a good conversation for the two of you to have."

Peter sighed as he looked pensively over at his friends before snapping his attention back to Tony but still, he didn't say anything, knowing his dad would continue to drop hints as to what the conversation was about if he just waited him out.

Tony watched him carefully before he recognized what he was doing, "I know what you're doing by the way and if you really want to know you should ask her but before you do, I need to tell you how absolutely lucky you are to have her. She's incredible, Pete. And regardless of whether or not you guys stay together or even just stay friends, you should talk her about this."

"You could just tell me, it would save me some pain," Peter quipped, only partially joking about the implications. He had an idea of what the conversation had been about and if it was what he thought then he might be able to catch Tony off guard by asking about specifics, "She thanked you didn't she?"

Tony leaned back away from him in wide-eyed surprise before he asked, "How could you have possibly know that?"

Peter shrugged as he looked back over at the board game group and explained, "After she got done yelling at me about what happened, she told me she was going to thank you." Peter shrugged as his eyes wandered back up to Tony, "I honestly wasn't sure if she was going to but given the fact that she asked me about a hundred times if you were going to be at graduation, I kind of assumed that's what happened."

"I plead the fifth, Pete." Tony held his hands out to the side as he tried to preserve the promise he had made to maintain Michelle's confidence. Then he dropped his hands and patted Peter's shoulder, "You should talk to her though, I'm serious about that." And before Tony could say anything else, and he knew he would, he changed the subject, "So where is she going to college?"

Peter knew he had missed his chance and instead decided to just talk to his dad, so he shot him a smirk as he answered, "MIT."

Tony's smile broadened before he drawled, "Oh really? Was this before or after you filled out your application?"

"Well, considering I was early decision, and you practically made me do it, there's no way that's a thing." Peter laughed a little before he continued more seriously, "I didn't know where she applied to, it was only after we both got in on early decision that she told me where she was going."

Tony's eyes sparkled a bit as he looked over at the young woman before he mumbled, "Well, maybe she'll have to find some scholarship money to help offset some of the costs. She is an incredibly clever woman after all." Then before Peter could say anything else, Tony asked, "What about Ned and Betty?"

Peter knew exactly where this was going and it was starting to make him a little uncomfortable so he warned, "Dad, come on…"

"What? They're your friends and I can help, so I want to. Come on, Pete, do you realize how easy it would be to just wipe out their tuition costs? At least this way it looks like its not me." Tony shot Peter a shit-eating grin.

Peter absolutely knew that regardless of whether he had knowledge of it, this was going to happen and he couldn't help the unconscious smile that flitted across his face at his dad's generosity and at his own incredible reality at being able to call him that. Still, once that thought passed, Peter answered, thoroughly defeated, "Ned's going to Stanford and Betty's going to Berkley."

"Perfect," Tony replied, ideas already turning in his head before he added, "Thank you for recognizing the inevitable and just telling me, it makes it easier."

Peter scoffed but tried one last time, mumbling, "You could just give them my tuition."

Tony exaggeratedly tugged on his ear, "What was that, Pete? Did you say I could just give them your tuition because that's what I'm thinking I heard you say. Get used to it, kid, that's never going to happen."

Peter knew that he was right because he was the one in charge of the money so instead, Peter sat back enough to look Tony in the eye as he said with the utmost sincerity, "Thank you, dad. For everything."

Tony smiled and said, "I must have done something right because everyone has been thanking me tonight." He pulled Peter into a tight, returned, hug, "You're welcome, Pete." Then he pushed him up off the couch. Or he tried.

Peter was surprised at the sudden action and threw his hand out. It stuck to the couch, keeping him exactly where he was. That made the beginning of Tony's order to "go join his party" rather moot. Both started to laugh as Peter unstuck his hand from the couch and glared back jokingly at Tony. Then Tony tried again, standing awkwardly and offering a hand down to his son, "Come on, Pete, let's go join the party."

Peter stood and Tony threw his arm back around his shoulder tugging him close. Peter turned and wrapped his arms fully around Tony, whispered, "I mean it, thank you for everything, dad."

Tony smiled and held him until they broke apart and Tony dragged him over to join what was probably the coolest graduation party ever.

* * *

**So that's the end of this story! **

**Like I said, that chapter was definitely meant to be fluffy and it totally felt like it but I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it :)**

**I think I'm going to take some time away for the next couple months to work on some of my own stuff but I'm sure some kind of Avengers story will end up poking at my consciousness at some point even if I don't want it too! And then I will totally have to write it down. For now though, I just ****hope you all enjoyed the story. **

**I hope you all have a wonderful night/day, and stay creative!**

**-Lily**


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